Endless Night
by Whispers Of The Moon
Summary: Gabriella has it made-perfect grades, a boyfriend to kill for, and the world at her feet. but when someone and starts to stalk her, will she win in the fight for her life? people will die. Troyella, Chaylor, Jelsi, Zekepay are couples. R&r plz!
1. Chapter 1

Hello people, just had this random idea, don't know if anything good's going to come out of it, just tell me what you think in reviews!

Gabriella was bent over her notebook in the library, working on an English extra-credit assignment. She heard someone walking up behind her. Whirling around, she saw her boyfriend, Troy.

"Hey, gorgeous," he greeted her. She smiled.

"Hi, Troy," she replied.

"What are you working on?" he asked, reaching over and grabbing her notebook, then dropping into the seat across from her. "Homework? Gabi, why do you bother doing this if it's _extra credit_?"

"We don't all want to fail." she teased.

"I can't help it, I'm just stupid!" he replied. Gabriella laughed. She suddenly turned; having a strange feeling that someone was watching her . . .

"What's up?" asked Troy.

"Nothing," Gabriella replied. There was no one there, just her, Troy, and a couple of students on the computers. Nothing to worry about, right?

"Come on." said Troy, standing up. "I'm taking out to dinner."

"I can't, I've really got to finish this. I'll call you, okay? Maybe you can come over." said Gabriella.

"Okay," said Troy, standing up. He walked over to Gabriella and gave her a quick kiss. "See you later, Gabi."

Gabriella watched him go, then turned back to her notes. She really wanted to get out of there now, since she couldn't shake off the feeling that she was being watched. She looked around again. Everything looked normal, a couple of kids she didn't know were on the computers, and one guy was using his phone behind the librarian's back. Everything was perfectly normal. _Maybe I'm just going paranoid, _she thought. She started packing up her books, and stood up. She started walking to the exit, lost in thought. She ended up walking straight into the guy who had been using his phone earlier.

"Sorry!" she gasped. She bent down, trying to help him retrieve his scattered books and papers. He didn't say anything, just stared at her for a few seconds, then walked away abruptly. Gabriella raised her eyebrows. Looking down again, she saw he had left one paper behind. She picked it up. The page she was looking at looked blank. She flipped it over.

Gabriella was looking at a photo of herself. It showed her bent over a paper in her chemistry class, with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. There was a look of concentration on her face.

_How would someone get a picture of me from chem class? _she wondered._ I really don't like this. _She looked up, but whoever had dropped it was gone.

Gabriella stood up and shoved the picture into her backpack. She stood up and hurried out of the school.

Later that night, Gabriella was on her email. She had a few junk mails, an email from Troy, two from Taylor, and one from a sender she didn't recognize. She deleted the junk mails, and opened Troy's.

_Hey, Gabi,_

_Just wondering, are you free this weekend? Maybe we could hang out? Email me back!_

_Love you, _

Troy

Smiling, Gabriella wrote back,

_Hey, Troy,_

_Sounds great. I'm emailing you back! _

_Love, _

_Gabriella_

She then opened Taylor's first email.

_Gabiiiii_

_I need you to help me study for the English test!! Martha can't, and I don't wan to fail it!! Helllllllllp!!_

_Taylor_

Gabriella wrote back,

_Taylorrrrrrr!!_

_I can meet you tomorrow or Friday, I think I'll be free Sunday afternoon, too. Not sure, though, Troy wants to hang out then. _

Gabiiiiiiii

She ignored her friend'd next email, since the subject was, _I'm bored, EMAIL ME_. She went to the next email. The sender name was blank, and the email name was iella clicked open warily.

_Gabriella, you looked beautiful in the library today. I'm watching you._

_Love,_

Gabriella hit reply, and typed,

Who the hell are you? Leave me alone before I call the cops!

She then deleted the email, and dismissed the matter completely.

_I'm watching you, Gabriella. You'll see. Don't even think about running. I will always be there, watching, waiting for you to come to me. You will. I will always love you, and you'll come to me, once you realize we are meant to be together. _

**So, yeah. That's my first chapter. PLEASE REVIEW EVEN IF YOU HATED IT!!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, people, sooooo sorry for my absence on this forever, I had the world's worst writer's block and then I started randomly getting reviews (thanks guys!) and I was like, shit, where's the angry mob?? They must be ready to kill me for not updating!! Sorry!! I'll try to make this chapter long to make up for it, and I'll post again later this week!!**

Gabriella was talking to Kelsi when her phone went off. Again. She rolled her eyes, and checked her texts. She had three new ones, all from an unknown number.

_Gabriella, you look beautiful today. Good luck on your physics quiz._

_I see you, Gabriella, so don't tell me you didn't hear your phone. Don't ignore me._

_Gabriella, if I were you, I would stop ignoring these texts, because things could get very bad if you do._

Gabriella quickly shut her phone, trying to hide her panic. She turned back to Kelsi. "Sorry," she said.

"Gabriella, what's wrong? You suddenly look like we're in locked in a haunted house with a serial killer." said Kelsi worriedly.

Gabriella shook her head. "I'm fine," she said in what she hoped was a calm and convincing voice. Kelsi raised her eyebrows skeptically.

"Gabriella, how stupid do you think I am?" she asked.

Gabriella shook her head again. "I don't, Kelsi. I'm just nervous about the English test."

"Gabi, that's in a week."

"Well, I'm really nervous." she replied. She bit her lip and looked around. "Listen, Kels, I've got to go to…"

Gabriella was saved the need to think of where she needed to go when Sharpay walked over and said briskly, "Kelsi, could you help me and Ryan with our audition piece? We really need a pianist."

"Sure," Kelsi said. She waved to Gabriella, and followed Sharpay to the auditorium.

Gabriella turned away, to her locker, wondering how life could go on when someone was texting her every few hours, threatening her and telling her she looked beautiful, and that she would soon be his. Gabriella was scared.

_How does he know so much about me?_ she thought. _Who is this person?_ She stuck her head into her locker **(evil person, she actually has enough locker space to do that, my locker is like, 4 inches across, not even kidding, I don't think I can fit my backpack in it) **and was so immersed in digging through her trash, she didn't hear someone coming up behind her, and was completely unaware that someone was standing right behind her until they grabbed her from behind.

Gabriella let out a hastily muffled cross between a scream and a squeal, jumping so that her head smashed into the locker shelf. She swore and emerged more carefully to see Troy, looking concerned.

"Are you okay, Gabi?" he asked. "I didn't mean to freak you out like that, sorry."

"I'm fine," Gabriella replied. She gave Troy a quick kiss. "What's up?"

"Do you want to come over my house tonight?" he said. "We can have a movie marathon or just hang out, whatever you want."

Gabriella smiled. "Sounds great. I'll be there at 7-ish, okay?"

Troy nodded, glanced at his watch, and jumped. "Gotta run, Gabi. Dad's going to go ballistic if I'm late for practice." He gave Gabriella a kiss, then dashed off.

Smiling, Gabriella watched him go, and turned back to her locker. She pulled out a book, then glanced around the emptying halls. It was her free period, which she wanted to spend studying for her English final. **(I'm going to be mean and give her finals…teehee) **She started toward the media center, where she planned on spending free period. She slipped in and sat down at an empty table, then opened her book and stared reading.

About fifteen minutes later, her phone buzzed. She swore under her breath, thankful that there were no teachers around, and opened her phone under the table.

_Don't worry about the English final, Gabriella. I'm sure you'll do fine._

Gabriella groaned and deleted the text. She was sick of this. She opened one of her old texts from this person, and wrote,

_Stop it, you sicko! I'm seriously going to call the cops! _

She sent it and went back to studying.

A minute later, she got another text.

_You keep saying that, Gabriella, and you don't. I wouldn't recommend it, though. _

_Why do you keep bothering me??_

She wrote back.

_I love you, Gabriella. You will be mine._

_Seriously. Stop this. You're scaring me. I'm going to call the cops and set my boyfriend on you._

_What boyfriend? I don' like the idea of you having a boyfriend, Gabriella._

_I don't give a damn if you don't like it!_

_But Troy might not always be around to protect you._

Gabriella felt chills go up her spine as she read this. Her phone buzzed again, announcing a new text.

_Don't go out with him tonight._

_What are you talking about? _

_You know what I'm talking about, Gabriella. I'm serious. It could be bad for all of you. _

_I'm not going out with him tonight. _

_Yes, you are. You're hanging out at his house. I know it. Don't lie to me, Gabriella. _

_WTF leave me alone. _

_But I love you, Gabriella. I can't leave you. _

That did it. Gabriella shut off her phone, and dropped it into her purse. She went back to studying, trying to forget about her recent conversation. One thought kept running through her mind: _How did he know?_

That night, all of Gabriella's worries were forgotten when she got to her boyfriend's house. Troy greeted her with a kiss, and led her to the basement, where he had something of an entertainment center. The Boltons had a large flat-screen HD TV, with an x-box, PS2, and GameCube, because there were two teenage boys in the family who were obsessed with video games and they happened to have a large enough amount of money to be able to buy them whatever game system they wanted **(how they managed this when Jack Bolton's a gym teacher, I don't know)**.

"What are we doing tonight?" Gabriella asked playfully.

"Well, whatever you want." Troy replied. Gabriella giggled.

"Let's watch a movie and not really pay attention to it," she suggested with a grin.

"Awesome." said Troy. They spent the next fifteen minutes arguing over what movie to watch because they could, and then finally decided on Get Smart the movie **(which is supposed to be hilarious, I've only seen the second half because the paper printed the wrong time when I went to see it but it was really funny and they just happened to have it on demand because **

**they're evilly lucky like that) **and then Troy couldn't find the remote. Then, right when they had decided to just not watch a movie and make out all night or something, Gabriella fell over it, and then they had to because they could. They turned the movie on and started paying absolutely no attention to it, and started making out instead. Then, when things were getting intense, Gabriella's phone announced that she had a new text.

She swore in her head, and broke away from Troy long enough to check her texts.

_Didn't I tell you not to go? _the message read. Gabriella deleted it, and turned back to Troy.

"Where were we…?" she asked coyly. Troy started kissing her again and that turned into a really long makeout session **(and all that romantic shit that I am absolutely no good at writing. If you are any good at it, I hate you and I'm extremely jealous.)**.

After leaving Troy's at about 1 AM, Gabriella drove home, then slipped into her room, trying to keep quiet and not wake her mother, who thought she was studying with Sharpay, and would put two and two together if she found her daughter sneaking in at 1 AM, and Sharpay knew nothing about studying with her. Also, the last time she had been caught, she had been grounded for two weeks (it would have been longer, but her mother couldn't prove anything).

As she got ready for bed, trying to be quiet, her mysterious stalker was the last thing on Gabriella's mind. She didn't think she had anything to worry about besides her mother finding out what she and Troy had been doing earlier. Little did she know, that was the least of her worries.

_Gabriella, Gabriella. I told you not to go. If I get any more reason to hate that boy, any more than I have now, then things will get bad for him. Six feet under bad. I think it's time to remind you, Gabriella, if you keep trying to deny our love, things will happen. Bad things. But I will love you no matter what, Gabriella. You will be mine. _

**Yay!! I finished it!! And it was nearly four pages long!! Now I don't feel so bad about not updating (but I'm still REALLY SORRY it took me so long!!). Also, I need a beta reader!! If you want to beta read for this, then review this or PM me!! Either one works!! And even if you don't, please review!! PLEASE!! I will give you cookies!! : ) Cuz cookies are awesome!! And I really have to stop typing or else my insane mother will go all insane on me like she does 5 times a day!! And that would be bad!! And I should probably go post this now!! Please review!!**


	3. Chapter 3

Yeah…can't think of anything weird to say here…just please read this, and review it even if you think I deserve to die for wri

**Yeah…can't think of anything weird to say here…just please read this, and review it even if you think I deserve to die for writing such bad stuff…JUST TELL ME IN REVIEWS PLEASE!! And go read RemyTheReaper's stories cuz they're cool. Yeah. Here's the next chapter. **

It was Saturday. "Thank god," Gabriella muttered, rolling over to check her alarm clock which read 9:43 because who would be up before then on a Saturday?? "No school, no teachers, no exams…" She picked up her phone to check voicemail and texts, and was relieved to see that she had gotten no new texts since the creepy ones the guy had last sent her. She punched in her voicemail pass code, and saw that she had two new messages. The first one was from Sharpay:

"Hey, Gabi, it's Shar. You're probably still sleeping, so whatever. Anyways, we're all hanging out at my and Ryan's house tonight. Be there about six and DON'T TELL THE GUYS, because if they know, and get here before you guys, we'll be stuck watching football or whatever for the entire night. And that, my friend, would suck. Also, I really want to see John Tucker Must Die **(I LOVE THAT MOVIE)** for the 15th time tonight, and torture Zeke. Teehee. So, anyway, call me back, okay? Kay, bye!"

Smiling, Gabriella made a mental note to call Sharpay as soon as she had heard her next message. Her second one was from a random number that she didn't recognize. She figured it was one of her friends, calling from a borrowed phone or pay phone or something.

"Gabriella, you made a mistake last night. I told you to stop seeing him. You and your friends will pay for your screw-up. You'll regret not admitting that you love me too, Gabriella." Click.

The voice was raspy and mildly creepy. No, more than mildly. It sent chills up Gabriella's spine, but that was nothing compared to what she had heard. _How did he know about last night?_ She thought. _No one but Troy and I know, right? And Troy wouldn't… He knows I love him…he loves me…he wouldn't do this…_

Gabriella's thoughts were crashing against each other, creating a clamoring space in her mind where only one thing made sense…Someone else knows. Someone's watching me.

"Gabriella! Taylor's here!" Gabriella heard her mother call from downstairs. _Already?_ Gabriella thought, swearing in her head. She rolled off her bed, where she had been reading, and ran down the stairs to her friend.

"Ready?" Taylor asked teasingly. She gave her friend's outfit of a cami top and sweat pants a once-over reminiscent of Sharpay.

Gabriella started laughing at the impression. "Not quite, but you're early. Give me two minutes."

Gabriella ran back upstairs ad hurriedly dressed in jeans, a light blue, lightly sequined tank top and flip flops. She came back downstairs stuffing her phone into a small blue purse.

"Good-bye, Gabriella!" said her mother, waving to her daughter and her friend as they crossed the front yard to Taylor's car. "Call me if you're going to be home after 11:30!"

"Bye, Mom!" Gabriella called back, climbing into the passenger seat of Taylor's silver Hybrid. **(Taylor has to have a hybrid cuz she's cool like that) **

"What's up?" asked Taylor once they had started driving.

"Nothing," said Gabriella quickly. _Why does everyone keep asking me that? _She wondered silently. _I'm trying not to let anyone know about the texts and stuff… they can't know…_

"Well, you've been constantly spacing out for the past week, you're not really talking to anyone, and you always look like you're being followed by a serial killer or something." said Taylor, as though she was reading Gabriella's mind.

Taylor's guess had hit a little too close to home for Gabriella. "I'm just stressed about finals," she said in what she hoped was a convincing voice. Taylor gave her skeptical look, but dropped the matter. The talk turned to finals and what they were going do during the summer as they pulled up in front of the Evan's mini-mansion.

"There you guys are!" Sharpay called from the door as the two girls hurried up the paved walkway. "God, I was getting freaked out from not having anyone around!"

"Where's Ryan?" asked Taylor as they approached their friend.

"We conveniently ran out of popcorn, so he went to get some." said Sharpay. "Come on, I was about to start the movie without you!"

"What about Kelsi and Martha?" asked Gabriella.

"They're here," said Sharpay, pointing to the driveway, where another set of headlights had appeared.

"How do you know that's not-"

"Ryan drives a Jeep. The headlights would be a lot higher." Sharpay cut her off. "Go on in, I'll be there in a second."

Taylor and Gabriella walked down the hall to the living room, where the DVD menu for John Tucker Must Die was displayed on the 48-inch HD flat-screen TV. They sat down on one of the couches, and heard their friends coming in a few seconds later.

"Hey, guys!" Kelsi and Martha greeted them, sitting down on the other couch in the room. "What are we watching?" Kelsi asked.

"John Tucker Must Die," Gabriella, Sharpay, and Taylor chorused.

Kelsi and Martha laughed. "The guys'll love that," said Martha, grinning.

"I know, right?" squealed Sharpay.

"Where's Ryan?" Martha asked.

"He's out getting popcorn. Don't worry, your boyfriend will be back soon." said Sharpay, smirking. Martha made a very angry face at her. Sharpay turned on the movie, and they all started watching it.

At about the part in the movie where the girls got John to model for a herpes ad, Troy, Chad, Jason and Zeke walked in.

"Sharpay," said Zeke, coming over and giving Sharpay a quick kiss, "are we going to be watching chick flicks all night?"

"We are? That sucks." Jason complained.

"No, we're going to take over and watch baseball." said Zeke.

"Nooooooo!" Sharpay let out a long, drawn-out scream and quickly sat down on the remote. Zeke attempted to pick her up to get the remote, which kind of worked. Sharpay grabbed it out from under her butt and tossed it to Gabriella, who started running as Troy chased her, trying to gain possession of the sacred TV remote. The movie forgotten, they started playing a game of one-sided capture the flag **(or something else…can't think of a better random game that people actually know the basics of that's kind of like what the people are doing trying to capture the remote…) **boys vs. girls, each side trying to get the remote. Then, Jason kidnapped Kelsi and was holding her hostage because she had had the remote at the time, and they started making out. Everyone ended up forgetting about the remote and were being all couple-y, making Martha feel VERY AWKWARD and left out when Ryan walked in, carrying a couple of bags from Stop and Shop, and a large, brown paper bag. He tripped over the remote, causing some distraction for all the couples as he went flying, along with the microwave popcorn and the paper bag, which was full of hats.

"Ryan, are you okay?" asked Martha, walking over and helping him up, kidnapping the remote at the same time.

Ryan nodded, and started collecting the popcorn and hats, with Martha's help. "Sorry it took me so long," he said. "I found this awesome little store where they have the _greatest_ hats, and I couldn't just pass it by."

Sharpay rolled her eyes, and grabbed the popcorn out of his hands. "Why isn't it ready?" she asked impatiently.

"Because you have to stick it in the microwave first, Sharpay." said Chad. Everyone started laughing.

"Fine. Can you go make it?" asked Sharpay sweetly, handing her brother back the bags with the popcorn. Ryan rolled his eyes and headed off to the kitchen.

"Where's the remote?" said Troy. Everyone remembered that they had been having a war over it. Martha held it up, smirking triumphantly.

"Yay! John Tucker lives!" Sharpay squealed. She sat down and started watching the movie again. Everyone else followed suit, and started being all couple-y again. Ryan walked back in the room, where everyone was being couple-y and making out except Martha, who was standing off to the side feeling awkward again. Ryan came in and asked her to come help him with the popcorn. They both disappeared into the kitchen, and stayed there for a while.

"Where's the popcorn?" Zeke asked.

"Ryan!" Sharpay yelled, nearly shattering her boyfriend's eardrums, due to the fact that she was sitting on his lap and her mouth was kind of close to his face.

"I'll go get them." said Zeke, standing up. He disappeared, and came back a few minutes later with Ryan and Martha, and several bowls of popcorn. **(YAY! POPCORN!) **Everyone started watching the movie again, then Ryan suggested going downstairs to play video games. All the guys left, except Jason, who for some reason unknown to all likes chick flicks. Or he liked being with Kelsi enough to stand chick flicks.

Gabriella got up when the movie was nearing the end, and went downstairs to find Troy, with Jason and Kelsi, since Kelsi was convinced that Jason was more terrible at video games than her, and wanted to prove it. Gabriella was glad to see that Troy was watching Ryan and Chad fight to the death on some random video game (insert video game here).

"Hey," she said softly.

"Hey. Get bored of your chick flick?" he asked playfully.

"No, I missed you." she replied.

"Sit down," said Troy, patting the space next to him on the couch. Gabriella dropped down beside himand sighed, resting her head on his shoulder.  
"You tired babe?" Troy asked, wrapping his arm around her. Gabriella shrugged and yawned,  
"A little." Troy chuckled, pulling her onto his lap sideways, brushing her dark bangs out of her face. Gabriella looked up at him and smiled shyly. Just as she was about to lean up for a kiss, their moment was interrupted by a loud, continuous beeping, coming from Gabriella's purse. She looked at it and saw she had a new text.

_Don't get too comfortable with pretty boy there. You'll be with me soon enough. _

She quickly closed off the text before Troy could see it. Then she noticed that it was nearly 12ish and she needed to call her mom. She speed-dialed her mother hurriedly. Her mother's phone went straight to voicemail, meaning she was probably asleep or her cell battery had died. She left a message, then settled back against Troy. She soon dozed off, and was woken up at about 2 am by Sharpay, asking if she wanted to sleep over.

"No, thanks, Shar," she said. "Sleeping over and having to borrow your pink unicorn pajamas once was more than enough. Troy can give me a ride home."

"They were PUPPIES!" Sharpay yelled with overdramatic anger, watching her friends walk down to Troy's car. "Bye, lovebirds!"

They both waved, and climbed into Troy's car. Gabriella, of course, fell asleep on the way to her house. She had to be woken up (again) and wanted to just sleep in the car all night, because she didn't feel like getting up. Once inside, she stumbled into her room and pulled her clothes off without turning on the light. She crashed on her bed and was asleep in a minute, oblivious to the paper tacked to her wall, which had a message smeared in a dark red sort of paint:

_Your friends will pay for your mistakes, Gabriella. But I will forgive you. Leave that pretty boy who thinks he loves you. I love you, Gabriella, and you know you love me too. _

**Yay! Chapter 3 is up! So, people, I have a beta reader, RemyTheReaper, and she gets credit for helping me out with this chapter, and will be helping me out with the rest of the story unless she decides she had better things to do than try to make this story better! (not that she does a bad job, this story just sucks in the first place) She also gets credit for writing the little romantic part with Troy and Gabi right before Gabi gets the text from her wonderful stalker near the end. THANKS! Also, thank you for the reviews, PLEASE REVIEW THIS EVEN IF YOU HATED IT! I WILL GIVE YOU COOKIES! NOT EVEN KIDDING! Oh yesh and I am giving virtual cookies to xxZanessaxx, ashleysinga4life, daydreamer299, JoBro-JelsiLuver, (YAY JELSI!) and RemyTheReaper for reviewing last chapter so far! And wow, I think that was the longest AN I've ever written. Damnit, now I have to go read over every single AN I've written to see how long they are. I'm sad like that. Okay, I think I'm just going to shut up and let you all get on with your lives now! PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Helloooo, people, sorry in the taking foreverness of posting this, but my beta reader was away on vacation, and I didn't want to post this without her reading it first. Sorry!! But it's up now!! And PLEASE REVIEW!! Just say you liked it, say you hated it, or tell me that purple unicorns are coming to take over the world, I DON'T CARE!! JUST PLEASE REVIEW!!**

On Monday, Gabriella was very nearly late for school. She had overslept, because she had been lying awake until very late the night before, worrying about the person who kept sending the creepy threats. She had found the note that looked like it had been written in blood, and thrown it away. But she hadn't been able to get the message out of her head….

"Gabi? Gabi? Gabi?" Sharpay's insistent talking brought Gabriella out of her thinkingness. "hey, will you come over my house after school? I need help studying!"

"Have you even started?" asked Gabriella, half-exasperated, half-amused. 

"Well, I opened the book last night…" she replied. "Gabi, you can see I need help! Please? There'll be candy…and unicorns…"

Gabriella gave Sharpay a weird look. "What? I like unicorns." she said defensively. 

Gabriella pretended to think it over. "Fine," she consented finally. "Now let me get to my locker."

Sharpay bounced off, seeming very happy. Gabriella watched her go, wishing her life could be as easy as the her bouncy blonde friends was. She turned back to her locker, finding a single piece of paper shoved up the vents. She took it out and unfolded it. It was a note, only a few lines long. It read,

_You know what will happen if you tell. It won't always be this hard, Gabriella. Someday, everyone will know of our undying love. For now, just know I love you._

Gabriella read this with terror mounting greater with every word. She crumpled it up and threw it back in her locker. Grabbing the books she needed, she hurried through the emptying halls to class. 

After school, Gabriella hurried to her car and drove to Sharpay's, to find Sharpay and Taylor already there. She was ready to escape, ready to believe the worst thing in her life was finals, if only for a minute. 

She parked behind Sharpay's pink convertible, climbed out, and greeted Taylor and Sharpay, who were standing on the sidewalk, waiting for her. "Come on," said Sharpay, once Gabriella had joined them. She led them up to her pink, fluffy, unicorn-filled room. 

**(not even kidding. Every object there was pink, and fluffy, and adorned in unicorns if at all possible)** Sharpay pushed Gabriella toward her bed, then perched herself precariously on the corner of her desk. Taylor sat down in Sharpay's pink, fluffy swivel chair. Gabriella moved aside a unicorn pillow and sat down. 

"What's up?" she asked uncertainly, wondering why her friends had dragged her there. 

"Gabriella." said Taylor. "Tell us what's up. We know something's wrong. You look like you haven't been sleeping in days, you're constantly looking over your shoulder like we're in a horror movie, and you look like you've been sentenced to death every time your phone says 'new text.' Seriously, Gabi. Tell us. We can help."

"So what? You both just dragged me here for to do an intervention?" she snapped. Taylor looked slightly guilty. Shapay pointed at Taylor. 

"Her idea," she said. "I honestly wanted to study."

"Gabriella, seriously. We know something's up. We're not stupid. Well, most of us aren't anyway. Please. We want to help."

Before she could answer, Gabriella's phone informed her that she had a new text. Grateful for the distraction, she flipped open her phone.

_Don't say a word, Gabriella. I'm warning you. It could be bad for Martha._ the text read.

_Bad for Martha? What does this freak mean? _Gabriella thought. New picture mail! flashed across the screen. Gabriella went to picture mail and saw a cell phone picture of Martha. She was tied to a chair, gagged and tied up, and her eyes showed absolute terror.

"Who was that from?" asked Sharpay. 

"No one. Have you guys seen Martha lately?" asked Gabriella, trying to sound casual.

"No, not since Shar's party last weekend. She left early. I think she got sick. Who was that from?" Taylor gestured to Gabriella's phone, where she had been deleting the text. Taylor kidnapped it before she could get rid of the picture. 

"Gabriella? What is this?" she asked sharply. "Who sent this?"

Gabriella shrugged. "I don't know."Sharpay took the phone, and started reading through all of the texts Gabriella had from the unknown number. 

"Gabriella…? What the hell is this? You will be mine…I will always love you…tell anyone, things will get bad…it won't always be like this…" She shut the phone and looked up. "Gabriella, it's like you're getting stalked or something!"

**PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!! I've had writer's block for a while, and my beta reader was on vacation. She just got back yesterday. Then, I wasn't sure if I wanted to past this yet, but I felt bad about not posting in forever, so I'm going to. It's not a very good chapter, more of a filler, but hopefully things will be better next chapters! Please r&r!!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi people…please don't kill me for my huge update delay…and please review… : )**

Gabriella glanced up sharply. "No. I'm not." she said, trying to convince herself as much as she wanted to convince her friends. She wasn't very convincing.

"Gabriella, though circumstantial evidence may prove otherwise, we're not all idiots." said Taylor. "We want to help."

"So, what? You're just trying to interrogate me?" snapped Gabriella. "Thanks, but no thanks. Leave me out of your little police play."

Sharpay pointed at Taylor. Taylor rolled her eyes.

"Gabriella, stop it." she said. "We really want to help. It's not easy for us to see you going through this. Come on, we'll drive you to the police station, and this sick perv will be caught in no time." She stood up and gently took Gabriella's arm.

Gabriella wrenched her arm away. "Stay away from me, Taylor. Both of you. Stop bothering me. Get out of my life!" with that, she stood up, and started running, half-blinded by the tears that were just starting to fall.

Taylor and Sharpay started following her. They got to the door in time to see Gabriella running off, trying to escape.

"Come on," said Taylor, beckoning Sharpay back inside. "We can call the guys, and tell them what's going on. We should try to follow her now. Get your keys."

"But, Tay," said Sharpay, following the brunette back into her house, "Gabi said to stay away."

Taylor stopped and turned. "If we listen to Gabriella, then we might as well go find her stalker and lead Gabriella to his doorstep blindfolded." she said darkly. "We have to find her. Before he does."

With Gabriella:

Gabriella started slowing down, then stopped altogether, looking around, still crying. She had no idea where she was, she was scared, and she felt like she was being followed.

She backed up against a wall in the small, dark alley where she stood, and slid down to a sitting position, still crying. A loud clap of thunder announced a coming storm, followed soon after by pouring rain. Gabriella buried her face in her hands, huddled against the wall. "Why?" she yelled out, looking up to the sky. "Why are you doing this?" She started to cry again.

"Gabriella, it's all right. I'm here." a voice whispered. Gabriella looked up again.

She saw a figure, dressed in all black, standing at the entrance to the alley. She stood up slowly.  
"Troy?" she asked tentatively. "Chad? Jason?" The figure did not answer.

"Who are you?" she begged.

"You know me, Gabriella." said the figure, starting to walk towards her now. Gabriella started backing up. It reached out a black-gloved hand and stroked her cheek.

"Who are you?" she asked again.

"Your true and only love, Gabriella." the figure whispered.

Gabriella slapped its hand away. "Stay away from me." she whispered venomously.

"You can never deny it. Our love is meant to be." said the figure, grabbing her face and forcing her to look at its masked features. Gabriella somehow knew that rough, masked voice, but how?

"Gabriella? Gabriella!" a voice called out-Chad. He and Troy must have come looking.

The figure looked around. "I will be back for you, Gabriella, my love," it whispered.

"Gabriella!" Troy cried out, as he and Chad came into view. The figure let go of Gabriella at the arrival of the two others and started running back up the alley. Troy ran to Gabriella, who was standing there, looking as though she might faint. Chad started chasing after the figure, but returned after a few seconds.

"Gabi, Gabi, shhh, it's okay, I've got you, I've got you," Troy said softly, wrapping his arms around Gabriella's trembling form. She started crying into his rain-soaked shirt, which was wet already, so her crying didn't really get it any wetter.

"Gabriella, who was that?" asked Chad, completely ignorant of the fact that Gabriella was completely hysterical. Then again, maybe he didn't care. With Chad, you never know.

"I…I d-don't know," Gabriella sniffled, pulling away from Troy enough so that sh could speak to Chad and be understood to some degree.

"Taylor told us about the texts and stuff." said Troy. "Gabi, why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I didn't want to hurt you," she whispered.

"Gabi, you've been hurting yourself. Seriously. Let the big boys beat the crap out of whoever's been messing with our best friend. Don't try and take it all yourself." said Chad, which was his strange way of being understanding and sympathetic.

Gabriella shook her head. "Don't go getting yourself mixed up in all of this." she said seriously, breaking away from Troy completely. "I don't want any of you getting hurt."

"What about you, baby? You seriously think we're going to leave you to this sick bastard?" Troy demanded. He reached out and brushed Gabriella's hair. "Gabi, we'll be here for you no matter what. I'll be here for you no matter what." He gave her a gentle kiss. Gabriella wrapped her arms around his waist, hugging him close.

"Hey, guys?" said Chad. "Look, I'm all for standing out in the rain all night and watching you make out. Seriously. It's my favorite pastime."

Troy and Gabriella both looked at Chad with expressions that read, "get to the point," and "go away".

"Well, yeah, pneumonia looks awesome too," he said. "But we should really get back. Taylor's probably doing what she does best-worrying. And thinking about all the bad things that could have happened to us."

Troy and Gabriella agreed to get back to Chad's car. They reached it a few minutes later, and all got in, with Chad driving and Troy and Gabriella in the backseat. Gabriella was curled up across two seats, with her head in Troy's lap, and Troy stroking her hair.

"You okay?" asked Troy.

Gabriella nodded. "I'm better now." she whispered, closing her eyes. Right then, with her boyfriend there, going to her friends, knowing that nothing could hurt her now, she felt safe for the first time in a while.

All too soon for Gabriella, the ride was over, and they were pulling up in front of the Evans manor. Chad got out, walked over to the back seat, and opened the door. "Come on, lovebirds," he said, beckoning them out. Gabriella sat up reluctantly.

"Ugh, I'm tired." she muttered. She threw an arm around his shoulders and he half carried her to the door.

"Come on, you can crash inside," said Troy, leading her into the spacious living room. Sharpay, Taylor, Kelsi, Jason, Zeke and Ryan all sat there. Sharpay was sitting on Zeke's lap, biting her lip and looking around nervously, clutching Zeke's hand and mangling a unicorn pillow lying on her couch at the same time. Kelsi was intertwining her fingers with Jason's, staring at the ground. Taylor and Ryan were both sitting alone. Taylor jumped up as Chad walked in, and threw her arms around him.

"Oh, my god, could you at least have called?! We were all worried sick! You could have died or something! Oh my god, thank goodness you're okay!" she cried.

"Tay, calm down," Chad murmured into her hair. "It's okay, we're okay, Gabi's okay, calm down." He gave her a quick kiss.

"What happened?" she demanded, following Chad over to a couch and sitting on his lap.

"We found Gabi," said Chad.

"Really, Chad? I never would have guessed!" Sharpay exclaimed.

Taylor gave her boyfriend a half-exasperated, half-amused look. "Really, Chad. What happened?" she questioned.

"Gabi was over in the south side." said Troy. "There was someone there. We didn't see who, but we think it was whoever's been doing this to Gabi."

"They came up after I ran away and got lost," said Gabriella softly. "They came up and said something about loving me. Then Troy and Chad showed up and whoever it was ran off."

"Come on, sit down." said Sharpay, gesturing to one of the three couches. Troy and Gabriella sat down on one, where Gabriella fell asleep almost immediately. The sleepless nights of lying awake, worrying about whoever was causing this were starting to catch up with her.

The next day, Gabriella woke up in a room that was pink, but devoid of unicorns, so it couldn't be Sharpay's. She stood up, walked into the hall and realized she was in one of the guest rooms.

She stumbled down the hall to Sharpay's room, still half asleep. The sight that met her eyes woke her up very quickly, though.

Sharpay was not in her room. Her bed sheets were torn, as though they had been slashed through with a knife, and were stained with blood. The window had had a panel or two smashed out, and a note was pinned to the wall with a bloody knife.

_I am truly sorry to hurt you, Gabriella, my love, but they cannot know. Someday, we can be. I will always love you._

**SOOOOOOOOOOO sorry about my hugest delay in reposting…my evilly lucky beta reader was at camp…jealousy…and I had writer's block…but this should be up VERY SOON!! And I'll get the next chapter up a billion times quicker if you review!!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello, people, thnx 4 the reviews, sorry about making you wait to read this…school starts on, like, Thursday, and I still haven't done half my summer reading! Yeah, not good, I know…so, just a heads up, I might be not updating as frequently. It depresses me greatly. But as soon as my beta reader gives this chapter an okay, it'll be up, hopefully before Thursday. PLEASE REVIEW!!**

**Recap from last chapter-**

_Sharpay was not in her room. Her bed sheets were torn, as though they had been slashed through with a knife, and were stained with blood. The window had had a panel or two smashed out, and a note was pinned to the wall with a bloody knife._

'_I am truly sorry to hurt you, Gabriella, my love, but they cannot know. Someday, we can be. I will always love you.'_

Gabriella stared at the mess before her. She stumbled over to the note pinned to the wall and yanked it down. Her eyes widened as she read it, and she let out a gasp.  
Troy and Chad appeared in the doorway. "Hey, Gabi, what's up?" asked Chad, grinning. "Where's Sharpay?"  
"What are you doing here?" asked Gabriella warily.  
"Everyone crashed here after you fell asleep." said Troy.  
"Where is everyone?" she questioned urgently.  
"Downstairs, except Ryan and Sharpay," replied Troy. He looked confused. "Gabi, what…?"  
Gabriella held out the paper with the note on it. "I found this pinned up." she said quietly. Troy took the note, read it, held it out to Chad, and pulled Gabriella into his arms.  
"Troy, I'm scared," she whispered.  
"It's okay, I'm here, Gabi," he murmured to her.  
"Guys? Isn't finding Ryan and Sharpay a bigger problem?" asked Chad, holding up the note. "Gabi, is the guy writing these things the one we saw yesterday?"

"As far as I know," said Gabriella quietly. "Guys. When did you last see Sharpay and Ryan?"

"Yesterday." said Troy. "Gabi, what's up?"

"They probably just went to go get something. I'm sure they're fine." said Chad comfortingly. "Come on. Let's go downstairs. "He left the room, followed by Troy. Gabriella had no choice but to follow, trying to convince herself that this was all a terrible dream, that it couldn't be happening.

Downstairs, everyone had been ransacking the kitchen. They all seemed happy, blissfully unaware of the disappearances of two of their friends. Gabriella hated herself for bringing her problems onto them.

"Hey, Gabriella!" Kelsi said, smiling and waving.

Gabriella tried to smile back. She couldn't. She was too preoccupied.

"Have you seen Shar?" asked Zeke. "I wanted to know if she would mind me making some pancakes."

Gabriella shook her head. "I don't think she'd mind you doing anything to her kitchen, Zeke. She probably won't notice." Chad called over. Zeke started working on pancakes.** (PANCAKES ARE AMAZING! I know Zeke would be making something all fancy-ish, but pancakes are awesome, and I had them for breakfast, and they were the first thing that came to mind…and now I'm hungry…)**

"Hey, Gabi, what's up?" Taylor asked, joining her friend.

Gabriella dragged her friend over to an empty corner. "Tay, I think Sharpay and Ryan might have gotten kidnapped." she said quietly, already imagining Taylor's reaction.

"Gabi, what are you talking about? That's crazy!" Taylor exclaimed. Not quite what Gabriella had been expecting, but close enough.

"Come on. I want to show you something." Gabriella led her friend up to Sharpay's ransacked room. Taylor whistled at the damage.

"Wow." said Taylor softly. "I'd say that she had a huge fit of rage, but even she wouldn't get this mad." She stepped over the mangled remains of Sharpay's favorite stuffed unicorn, Mr. Fluffy, and walked up to the smashed window. "Who would have done this, though?" she wondered out loud.

Gabriella felt an instant relief at the fact that her best friend didn't think she was crazy, but wasn't very comforted by the fact that it seemed more and more like Martha, and now Ryan and Sharpay had disappeared.

"Maybe it's just a coincidence." said Taylor uncertainly, who seemed to have been thinking along the same lines as Gabriella.

"I don't think so." said Gabriella in a low voice. "Martha disappearing was one thing, but now Sharpay and Ryan in one night? This can't be coincidence, Tay. Look what was on the wall." She held out the paper with the scary message.

Taylor read it, her face showing more anxiety with every word. "Is this supposed to be some sick way of_ keeping you quiet_?" she asked incredulously.

Gabriella shrugged. "This guy knows how to get to me." she said softly. "This is why I didn't want you guys involved. I don't want you getting hurt."

Taylor took her friend's arm. "Well, we are not leaving you. Looks like you're stuck with us." To her relief, Gabriella didn't go all spazzy and psycho, or throw her hand off. Instead, she gave a small, sad smile.

"Thanks, Tay." she said quietly.

"Listen, I'm going to go tell the others what I think about this. Okay?" said Taylor. Gabriella nodded. "Awesome. Now come on, let's get downstairs before our huge pigs of boyfriends eat all the yummy pancakes."

"Watch whose boyfriend you're calling a pig!" Gabriella exclaimed, jumping up. Taylor started running, followed by Gabriella. They chased each other downstairs, to where their friends were sitting, looking unusually grave.

"What's up?" asked Taylor warily, glancing around at the grim faces. Kelsi pointed to the really big plasma screen HD TV that was sitting opposite them. A news report was on, showing a newscaster talking.

"…Police are still investigating the mystery behind the death of a local high school student, Martha Cox. Her body was found by hunters in the woods early this morning. She is presumed to have died from stabbing, and fatal head wounds. If you have any information concerning this girl's death, please call…."

"No…" Gabriella choked out. "It's my fault…"

Before any of her friends could do anything, she had started running, again. They heard the door slam, and Gabriella was gone.

**So, yeah, Martha's dead. I had to do that. This was getting boring and I needed to kill off SOMEONE. And I felt like it. And I'm too lazy to type anymore, and I'm getting writer's block, and yeah. Also, I might be killed by my wonderful Bunny if I don't get off the computer soon. :P Life. Yeah. Just please read and review even if this was the worst story you have ever read!! I will give you a cookie!! Not even kidding!!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello, people, yeah, I just figured that I should get up a chapter up before school starts, cuz when it does, me and my beta reader will be very busy! So yeah. Just thought I should get this done. I was a little irritated with myself about the last chapter, because it was so short, but oh well. Hopefully this will be better. Please review! I will give you cookies!! And cookies to everyone who reviewed my last chapter!! You guys are awesome!!**

Everyone glanced around at each other. "Guys, we've got to go after her before she does something stupid." said Troy, standing up.

"She already has." said Chad helpfully. Troy turned to him.

"What did you say?" he asked in a low, dangerous voice.

"Dude, all I'm saying is, it was stupid of her to go running off like that." Chad replied. "What's up with you?"

"Don't go around insulting Gabriella," said Troy in the same low voice. Chad stood up as well.

"Don't go around telling me what to do," he replied, sounding mildly angry, though nothing compared to Troy.

Taylor stood up and **(started screaming, "OMFG!!OH MY FYCKING GOD, OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT THE HELL DO WE DO?" and everyone****started running around like headless chickens… JK JK JK NOT REALLY LOL) **pushed the two of them away from each other. "Guys, stop it." she said sharply. "Fighting will do absolutely nothing for anyone. Especially Gabriella."

Troy opened his mouth. "But-"

"No. Quiet. Sit." Taylor pointed over to where he had been sitting before, in a manner appropriate of a mother dealing with an obstinate kindergarten child. Troy walked over to the couch and sat down, looking suddenly lost and alone without Gabriella beside him. "Okay," she started again. She turned and saw Chad still standing there. "Sit." she said, more forcefully. Chad also sat down. "Thank you." She turned back to her friends. "Okay, guys. I think Ryan and Sharpay might have been kidnapped, too." She held up the paper that had been pinned to Sharpay's wall. "This was to Gabriella. I think kidnapping her friends is this person's sick way of trying to keep her quiet. What do you guys think we should do?"

Everyone started talking at once. Going to the police seemed in general favor. "Okay! I get it!" Taylor called out. "The thing is, guys, I don't think we can go to the police."

"I think Taylor's right." said a voice. It was someone who hadn't really spoken up until now-Zeke. "We should try to find Gabi first, and see if we can get to Ryan and Sharpay."

"Thank you, Zeke." said Taylor appreciatively. "Jason and Kelsi, does one of you have a car?" Both nodded. "Okay, you guys go to her house and around town, any obvious places. Troy, check around the woods, like by the creek where she sometimes goes. Zeke, go drive around where we found her last time she ran away. You know where that is, right?" Zeke nodded. "Okay, me and Chad will check around by the highways and town outskirts. If you find any sign of her, call someone. Or just 4-way all of us. Whatever." She started walking toward the front entrance. Everyone followed her. She suddenly stopped and turned back to her friends. "Oh, and guys?" she said. "Be careful."

Gabriella's POV:

Gabriella had started running, again. She had to get away. This could not have happened. Martha could not be dead. It was her fault, and yet, it couldn't be true. Nothing was making sense anymore.

The tears Gabriella had been holding back started to fall, first slowly, then faster, blinding her. She looked around to what she could see of her surroundings. She was at the creek.

The creek was a small river where she came to calm down if she was upset of angry. It always calmed her down. Only her closest friends-in other words, Troy, Taylor, Sharpay, Kelsi, Chad Jason, Zeke, Ryan, and Martha-knew it existed. Only Troy, Taylor and Kelsi knew why she came here. She would have told Sharpay, but she very much doubted she would have cared.

Footsteps made her glance up. There was no one there. _You're just imagining things,_ she told herself. _You're just thinking about Martha…_

Suddenly, something came crashing down inside her. Martha was gone. And it was her fault.

Tears started pouring down her face again. "This is my fault, this is my fault, this is my fault." she whispered, barely audible._ Your fault…Martha…dead…you could have stopped this…Sharpay and Ryan…gone…your fault… _Her brain had turned into an echo chamber, thoughts bouncing around, crashing into one another, creating even worse thoughts…

Gabriella let a sob escape her. She buried her face in her hands, and fell to her knees, sobbing. This couldn't be. This was worse than any nightmare. But it had to be a dream. This could not be a reality.

She heard someone coming, but didn't bother to look up, figuring it was Troy or Taylor, knowing they would let her cry her heart out, and listen, and give her a hug and tell her it was okay. She felt someone's hand rubbing her back.

"Don't cry, Gabriella." A voice whispered.

"It's my fault," Gabriella choked out.

"What?" the person prompted. Gabriella guessed it was Troy.

"Martha. I could have stopped it." Gabriella whispered.

"Gabriella, don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault." said Troy. Gabriella looked up, ready to prove him wrong, tell him why it was her fault, and let him hold her and erase every bad factor of her life, if only for a minute. But she didn't see Troy's blue eyes looking back at her with concern. She saw two dark holes, black and bottomless, where the person's eyes should have been. She knew who it was.

"You," she whispered, in a voice so full of venom, it was scary, even when she was crying her eyes out.

"I did what I had to for us," the figure whispered.

"You bastard. You killed her. You kidnapped Sharpay and Ryan." she hissed.

"It was for you, Gabriella." The figure said. It reached out and touched the side of her face. Gabriella slapped its hand away.

"I hate you." she said in a low voice. The figure reacted, so suddenly that Gabriella had no chance to react. It gripped her arms tightly. Gabriella struggled, but her weak muscles were no match for the iron grip the figure had on her. She used the only weapon she could-her voice.

"Let me GO!" she yelled, in a voice worthy of Sharpay. The figure let go of one arm to press a hand over her mouth. She used her free hand to slap its masked face. Hard.

"Gabriella?" called a new voice. It was Troy. Gabriella was usually extremely happy to see her boyfriend, or hear him, but this was the happiest she had ever felt at hearing him. The figure let go of her.

"Stay away from us all." she hissed. "I will make sure you pay." As the figure melted away into the shadows, and was replaced by Troy, Gabriella felt the sudden anger that had flared inside her turn back to sadness. Suddenly, it was her fault again.

"Troy," she whispered, the tears starting again. "This is my fault. All my fault. What's been happening…Troy, it's because of me."

Troy stared at her. "Gabi, none of this in any way is your fault." He said. Gabriella shook her head and continued crying. Troy looked at her with concern, and wrapped his arms around her, letting her cry into his chest and as a result completely soaking a huge stain into his shirt.

"Sorry," she whispered, once she was finished crying, pulling herself away enough to get a good look at the huge stain on his t-shirt.

Troy looked down at it and shrugged. "It's not your fault, Gabi. None of it is." Troy reached down and cupped Gabriella's cheek with his hand, using his thumb to brush away the tears running down her cheeks. Gabriella's lips turned up into a small smile as she leaned back into his chest, feeling the steady beat of his heart.

"Troy?" she said after a moment, looking up into his gorgeous blue eyes.

"Hm?" he asked, running his fingers through her dark hair.

"Thanks," Troy smiled leaning down and planting a soft kiss on her lips. "Come on, let's get back to everyone."

Once everyone had met up once again, they decided to go and stay at Chad's. His parents were on a business trip **(evil jealousy)** so he was at home alone. **(that's why I'm jealous) **For like, ever. Anyhoo, everyone got to Chad's, or was going there, and happened to be driving past the Evans house. Troy and Gabriella were passing when they noticed a figure, standing in the front yard. They figured it was a maid or gardener or something, and thought nothing of it, until they were almost past the house, and Gabriella very suddenly yelled, "STOP!"

Troy braked immediately, his truck spinning slightly out of control, and ending up parked halfway on the sidewalk. "What?" he asked urgently.

Gabriella was out of the truck and halfway to the lawn already by the time Troy realized what she had seen. The blond maid in the yard was wearing a pink unicorn top. And no one would wear something like that, even if they worked for the pink-obsessed Evans, unless…

Gabriella was standing beside the girl by the time Troy had gotten there. Standing there, with her long hair messed up, her clothes torn and bloodstained, and a long gash running down the side of her face, was Sharpay.

**DUN DUN DUN…scary music…yeah… This is probably the last chapter I can get up before school starts. Perhaps I will be able to get a chapter up by this weekend if you review!! And again, cookies to whoever reviews!! Or knows how to fix my ipod!! Or both!! **


	8. Chapter 8

**Hello, people, so yeah, I had this chapter like, half-written, and then the computer crashed, and my English homework was there too, so now I'm pissed. Cuz I have to do them BOTH over. Evilness. And the word recovery is messed up, so I can't get them back. So I'm just starting over again. :P Oh, yes, and cookies to ****AbusedandPaying****, ****xxZanessaxx****, ****daydreamer299, ****RemyTheReaper****, and Grassy Leaves. Thnx 4 the reviews!! And also, RemyTheReaper is my beta reader, so go read her stuff!! (She made me say that!!) She's been my beta reader since the first chapter of this!! Yeah, whatever…**

_RECAP!-_

_Gabriella was out of the truck and halfway to the lawn already by the time Troy realized what she had seen. The blond maid in the yard was wearing a pink unicorn top. And no one would wear something like that, even if they worked for the pink-obsessed Evans, unless…_

_Gabriella was standing beside the girl by the time Troy had gotten there. Standing there, with her long hair messed up, her clothes torn and bloodstained, and a long gash running down the side of her face, was Sharpay._

"Sharpay? Shar? Shar, are you okay?" Troy heard Gabriella saying urgently. Sharpay opened her mouth to say something, and promptly collapsed

"Troy, get her inside the house," said Gabriella, all urgency and business, everything else momentarily forgotten. Troy picked up Sharpay and carried her inside, laying her on one of the couches. "Get me a first aid kit and call the others, tell them to get here now." Gabriella ordered, not looking at Troy as she slowly and carefully took off the pink, bloodstained sweatshirt Sharpay was wearing and looking over her arms and torso for any more injuries. Troy stared at the two girls before Gabriella glanced over at him. "Troy. First aid kit. Now." She pointed over in the general direction of the bathroom. Troy got her a first aid kit, and left her taping up Sharpay's face while he went to call Chad.

"Hello?"

"Taylor?" Troy said, confused.

"Yeah, Chad's driving. Troy?" replied Taylor's voice.

"I found Gabi. She was in the woods." Troy told her. Taylor breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is she okay?" she questioned.

"Yeah. I think so. We found Sharpay, though-"

Troy was cut off by a loud shriek of "WHAT?" and a squeal of tires, followed by several swears in Chad's voice. "Are you okay? Hello?" he said worriedly.

There was a moment of silence, then Taylor's voice said, "Hello? Troy, you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here. You guys okay?"

"We're good. Just a near-fatal almost car accident." replied Taylor, perfectly calmly. "Chad, get out, I'm driving. What about Sharpay? Did you idiots_ go to the stalker's hideout and break her out?!_ What about Ryan?!"

"No, Taylor. She was in her front yard. Gabi's patching her up now."

Taylor breathed another sigh of relief. "Thank god. Where are you?"

"We're back at the Evans manor. Can you call the others and tell them to get here and that we found Gabi and Sharpay?" asked Troy.

"Sure." said Taylor. There was badly hidden concern and worry in her voice. "Troy, be careful. Make sure nothing happens to any of you."

"Okay, Taylor. You, too. Bye." Troy hung up and walked back into the room, where Sharpay was opening her eyes.

"Sharpay? Are you okay?" Gabriella asked. "Can you hear me?"

Sharpay nodded. "Yes." she said quietly.

"Sharpay, what happened?" asked Troy.

Sharpay struggled to push herself up into a sitting position. Gabriella gently pushed her back down. "Easy," she said softly. "Stay. Hang on a minute." She stood up and turned to Troy. "Make sure she doesn't get up. I don't want her collapsing again." she told him. Then she disappeared into the kitchen. Troy heard her bustling around, looking through cabinets and taking stuff out.

"Sharpay? What happened? Who took you and Ryan?" Troy questioned.

Sharpay shook her head. "I don't know." she whispered. "I just woke up today and I was like this. It was just me and Ryan. I don't know who got us there, or how, or why. I just realized that I had a nail file on me, so I started cutting through the ropes. Then, the person came in, and started beating us up. He took Ryan away, I don't know where to, and then I got myself untied. There was a broken window, and I got out through that. There was a big truck, I couldn't see the color, it was too dark, and I hid in the back of it. Whoever it was came out, and we stared driving somewhere. I remember getting out, somewhere near Gabi's, and he saw me. He was trying to catch me, but I hid and he eventually left. I started trying to get home from there, and then I just remember waking up here with Gabi and you." She looked up at Troy. "What happened?"

"My stalker's trying to keep me quiet." said Gabriella. She had apparently been standing in the doorway the entire time, holding a glass of water. She approached Sharpay. "Here, drink this, _very slowly_."

Sharpay took the glass and sipped a small amount. "I'm fine, Gabi." she insisted. She slowly pushed herself up, as if trying to prove her point. "Really. You're the one we should be worried about."

Gabriella shook her head. "I can take care of myself," she replied. She was prevented from saying any more by the arrival of Chad, Taylor, Jason, Kelsi and Zeke. **(don't ask me how they were there all at the same time, they just were!)**

Zeke immediately walked over to Sharpay and gathered her in his arms. "Oh, my god, Sharpay," he whispered. "What happened?"

Sharpay shook her head again. "I don't know, Zeke." she whispered. "I don't know."

Gabriella stepped back, letting them have a wonderful ickishly romantical reunion. **(gag)**

"Gabriella! Are you okay?" Gabriella found herself being hugged by Taylor and Kelsi, both of them bombarding her with questions.

"Okay, okay, guys, calm down." she said, pulling herself away from her friends. "Guys. Listen."

Everyone stopped doing whatever and looked over at her. "What's up, Gabi?" asked Kelsi anxiously.

"When I ran away, he showed up." said Gabriella quietly. "Guys, it's been him all along. We were right."

"So…he was the one who kidnapped Sharpay and Ryan?" said Jason slowly. Kelsi nodded. "Oh! I get it now!" he said, his face lighting up. The grin slowly slid away. "That's bad, right?"

Everyone exchanged exasperated looks. "Yes, Jason." said Troy.

"Guys, you've got to stay away from me." Gabriella spoke up. "Whoever this is, he's targeting all of you to get to me."

"We don't care. We're not leaving you." said Troy resolutely. "We've been over this before, Gabi."

"But what about you?" Gabriella stared at him, tears glistening in her brown eyes. "I can't just sit here and watch you all die, knowing it's my fault. I can't let him get you."

"Gabi, worry about yourself." Troy replied. "We'll be fine."

Gabriella shook her head. "No, you won't." she whispered. "It's my fault." She bowed her head, starting to cry.

Troy walked over and pulled her into a hug. "Gabi, none of this is your fault." he murmured to her. "You shouldn't have to live with this."

Gabriella let herself start crying. **(again.) **Troy hugged her more tightly, holding her until she stopped. **(everyone else just kind of stood there awkwardly and pretended to care.) **Gabriella's phone buzzed, announcing a new text.

Gabriella broke away from Troy to check it. She stared at it for a few seconds, then let it fall out of her hand, sinking down onto the nearest couch. Troy bent over and picked up her dropped phone. On the screen were a only a few words-

_Life is hard, Gabriella, but we will be together no matter what. _

**DUN DUN DUN…scary music…so yeah. Idk if I like how this turned out…there was probably some confusion about last chapter…I had to remove it for a bit because I needed to change some stuff, and it wouldn't let me. Sorry! Please review! I will give you virtual cookies!! (I joined the dark side. It has cookies.) **


	9. Chapter 9

**Hellooooo, people, sorry for not updating, but I've been having no ideas for this. Then me and my beta reader were talking, (actually she was more like not caring, and I was trying to make her care) and she said that I could do something I didn't want to do, and I decided she was right, and then just now I had an idea. So now I'm writing this. Whatever. PLEASE REVIEW!!**

Gabriella found herself in Sharpay's room. She had no idea why she was here now, but she had no intention of heading back downstairs. She stepped over the mangled remains of Mr. Fluffy and walked up to the broken window, a cool breeze lifting her hair away from her face. She sighed and turned her back on the huge garden that Sharpay's room overlooked, looking over to the bed. It was the only thing in the room that hadn't been completely killed, it just looked like Sharpay had slept in it.

Gabriella sat down on the bed, nearly disappearing into the fluffy pinkness. She scrambled up, trying to find a way to sit down without being drowned in the covers. **(what an awful way to die-drowned in pink…shudder**) She eventually found one, and closed her eyes.

She opened them again, to find the room had gone dark. This was very strange, since it was supposed to be ten AM and the blinds were open. She glanced over at the alarm clock, which had the numbers displayed in pink instead of red, just because Sharpay's that insane. It read 10:26. How could it be so early? **(according to that clock anyway…it's in pink, how accurate can it be?) **

Gabriella somehow managed to get up without suffocating, which was something of a miracle, considering how fluffy the bed was. She slowly walked over to the door and slipped out into the hall.

No one was there, and everything seemed very dimly lit. Gabriella could barely see where she was going. She half-saw, half-felt her way to the stairs and made it to the living room without breaking her neck.

What she saw downstairs, she was not ready for. A man, dressed in all black, stood in the middle of the room, holding someone up by the hair. Taylor. **(I seriously debated it being Chad… what do you think?) **

Gabriella took a step forward, but nearly tripped over something lying directly in her path. She could just barely see in the dim light that it was Kelsi, her face covered in blood. She stared in shock, barely registering what she was seeing.

"What did you do to her?" she choked out.

"What does it matter, Gabriella?" the man whispered. He sounded just like the person who Gabriella had met before, in the woods when she had run away**. (basically like the murderer on the phone in Scream)**

"You bastard." she hissed. "Let them go. Leave them alone."

"Nothing would happen if I let them go," he said softly, letting out a small chuckle. "Watch."

He brought up a knife in his other hand, and held it up next to Taylor's face.

"Leave her alone!" Gabriella yelled, her voice mingling with two others. Chad was pulling himself up into a sitting position over by the wall. Blood was running down his face.

Gabriella couldn't tell who the other person had been.

The man gave Chad a look of disdain, and walked over to him, dragging Taylor. He bent down, next to him, and whispered, "Would you rather I hurt you?" Everyone heard him, anyway, because he was trying to talk all quiet in that creepy way that scary people do in movies but everyone hears them anyway.

"Leave her alone." Chad repeated. The man stuck the knife into his throat before he even had a chance to flinch. Taylor let out a scream. Gabriella was speechless. She didn't know if she could scream even if she wanted to. The man turned back to Taylor.

"Where were we, sweetheart?" he asked menacingly. He raised the knife up to her throat. "Oh, yes…"

"Please…" Gabriella whispered, tears starting to run down her face. "No!" she screamed as the man slit Taylor's throat. Taylor collapsed at his feet.

"Life is hard, Gabriella, but I promised you we would be together." he said softly.

"Bastard," she said defiantly. "I hate you."

"Saying that is not a good idea, Gabriella. We wouldn't want you to end up with your friends, would we?" He shoved her down, so that she was lying next to Kelsi's body. The figure beside her drew a quiet, ragged breath.

"Gabriella?" It was Jason.

"Jason, I'm sorry…"

A sudden light fell over the scene. Gabriella could see Jason more clearly now. There was a long cut running down his face, and his bloodstained hand was clutching Kelsi's.

"Gabriella, don't give in. Don't let him get to you."

"Jason, please, hold on…"

"Stay strong. Think of yourself. Don't…" Jason took another breath, and stopped moving.

"Jason? Jason!" Gabriella's voice sounded shrill.

"Gabriella?" another voice said. It was Troy.

"Troy?" she found her way over to him. He was lying by Chad, barely breathing.

"Oh, Troy, I'm so sorry..."

"None of this is your fault, Gabi."

Gabriella felt tears burning in her eyes at the lie. "Troy..."

"I'll be fine, Gabi. Just get yourself out. I love you." unfortunately, neither of them noticed the shadow that had appeared over them.

"I can't leave without you, Troy. I love you."

"It's really a shame, then," said a voice above them. "That love can be ended so easily." The knife fell, piercing Troy's heart long before Gabriella had started screaming.

"Gabriella! Are you okay?" said a voice above her.

Gabriella's eyes snapped open. She was still in Sharpay's room, it was still light, and she was staring up at Troy, who wasn't dead. It had all been a dream.

"Oh, my God…Troy…" Gabriella sat up shakily, Troy helping her.

"You okay?" he asked again.

Gabriella shook her head. "It was him…he killed you all…I'm sorry, Troy. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let him do this to you."

"Gabi, shhhhhhh, it was only a dream." Troy whispered, pulling her into a hug.** (insert romance here SAMI!)** "You going to be okay?"

Gabriella nodded. "I'm scared, Troy." she admitted softly.

"I won't let anything happen, Gabi. I promise." he whispered. He took her hand and led her downstairs.

Downstairs, the TV was on to an HBO On Demand Movie, Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle, but no one was really watching. Sharpay and Zeke had disappeared (probably making out, Gabriella guessed), Jason and Kelsi were being all couple-y, and Taylor was talking with Chad in a serious manner. Attempting to, anyway.

No one really noticed as Troy and Gabriella slipped in and started talking/making out. Gabriella had almost forgotten about all of the terrors lurking in the back of her mind. This scene was so natural, so normal for her, that it was impossible to imagine that anything could be wrong.

The doorbell rang, shattering the peace of the room. Everyone exchanged glances, deciding who they were going to force to go get the door. Eventually, Kelsi stood up and, taking Jason's hand, walked over to the hallway that led to the door. The rest of the group heard quiet murmurs and a door opening, then a loud scream.

Everyone hurried to the door. Standing next to the open door, Jason had pulled Kelsi into a tight hug, staring ahead grimly. Lying on the doorstep, covered in blood, was the body of Ryan Evans.

**Dun Dun Dun…cliffie…please review… **


	10. Chapter 10

**Hiiiiiiiii people, I was very bored in study and I really wanted to get another chapter up for this, and this is what I came up with!! Woohoo. Sorry it took so long, but me and RemyTheReaper (my beta reader) are engaged in a fluff-off. All my fluff is posted on my secondary fanfiction account, if you want to go read and review that (to help me beat her) then pm or review this saying so. I know you all couldn't care less, but hey, I can dream, right? Please R&R!!**

_RECAP!!-_

_The doorbell rang, shattering the peace of the room. Everyone exchanged glances, deciding who they were going to force to go get the door. Eventually, Kelsi stood up and, taking Jason's hand, walked over to the hallway that led to the door. The rest of the group heard quiet murmurs and a door opening, then a loud scream._

_Everyone hurried to the door. Standing next to the open door, Jason had pulled Kelsi into a tight hug, staring ahead grimly. Lying on the doorstep, covered in blood, was the body of Ryan Evans._

* * *

Sharpay let out a loud, strangled yell, and ran forward.

"Ryan! Ryan!" she yelled, shaking his shoulders as if she were trying desperately to wake him up from some awful sleep. "Ryan," she whispered. She collapsed over his lifeless body and started crying.

Kelsi was staring out the door into the darkening night, her face a rigid mask. Only the tears that glazed her face betrayed her true feelings. Gabriella knew Kelsi had dated Ryan for a while before she had met Jason, and was still very good friends with him. Gabriella thought she had known how much this was hurting her friends, but looking at Kelsi, she saw that she had no idea.

In front of her, Zeke was kneeling beside Sharpay, trying to console her and calm her down enough to get her off of her twin's body. He finally managed to pry her away, her unicorn patterned shirt sticky with her brother's blood.

"Whoever is doing this," she said in a low voice that scared everyone. "Whoever the hell is torturing us all like this is going to pay. I am going to find that bastard, and kill him if it is the last thing I do."

Later that night, Gabriella was curled up on her couch, in her living room. Alone.

The group had reluctantly called the police, and told them a very basic, patchy story of what had happened. They only had said that the doorbell had rang and when they had answered, Ryan's body had been there. The police had asked about a million questions anyway, and had finally released Troy, Gabriella, Chad, Taylor, and Zeke. Jason, Kelsi, and Sharpay were still being detained by the cops. The rest of the group had tried ot wati around for them, but a rather irate policeman had shown up and booted them off.

"Look, kids, I'm sure it's tough to have a friend be killed. But you can't just sit around bothering officers about it. Trust me. Your being here, watching us do some real work is not going to help anyone. Just go home!" he had ended up yelling at them.

Miserably, Gabriella rolled over, feeling around on the coffee table for her phone, so she could call Troy. She jumped out of her skin when it rang a few inches from her hand. She picked up, after seeing that it was Troy calling.

"Hey, Troy. God, you scared me. I was just about to call you." said Gabriella, trying to sound carefree.

"Hey, Gabi. What's up?" he questioned.

"Nothing. Just kinda nervous. You know, since I'm here alone…" she trailed off.

"Want me to come over?" he offered.

"Would that be too much trouble?" Gabriella asked hesitantly.

"No, my parents are out to dinner, so they can't stop me from coming over." Troy replied.

"Don't they know about Ryan?"

"Nope. They're at a _really long_ dinner. I'll be over in a few minutes, okay?"

"Okay, see you then. Bye." said Gabriella, hanging up. The moment she had, she wanted to call him back and beg him to talk to her until he was there. The phone rang again.

Gabriella answered immediately, figuring it was Troy again. "Hey, Troy, how'd you know I was just about to call you?" she asked, surprised.

"It's not your lover boy, Gabriella. It's me."

"You."

"Yes, me. You know me well enough, Gabriella. How did Sharpay handle Ryan?" the voice sounded like it was laughing, almost. "It must have been a real shock."

"You sick, evil, twisted, motherfking bastard,_ how could you_?" Gabriella suddenly screamed. She let out a choked sob and drew in a long, shuddering breath, tears glinting in her eyes.

"I did it for us, Gabriella. You have to remember that friends are dispensable, Gabriella, but only love is worth fighting for. It's only a friend, Gabriella. You still have love."

"I…DO NOT…LOVE YOU!" Gabriella screamed into the phone and hung up. She heard a car pulling up outside, and footsteps on the porch. The phone rang once more, displaying 'unknown caller.' Again. She hit ignore, and went to the door where Troy stood.

"Hey," he greeted her, giving her a quick kiss. "You okay?"

Gabriella shook her head. "The stalker called again. After you hung up." she admitted. He was talking about how I shouldn't care that Ryan was dead, and asking how Sharpay was, and then he said, 'Friends are dispensable. Only true love is worth fighting for.'" She looked up at Troy. "Troy, I'm scared." she said softly.

"It's okay, Gabi, I'm here." Troy murmured, pulling Gabriella into a hug. "So, what do you want to do?" he asked brightly.

"Ummmmm…" Gabriella thought for a moment. "Well, I was going to watch a movie…" she stared up at him with puppy-dog eyes. Troy knew he was sentenced to watching a chick flick.

A few hours later, Gabriella and Troy were huddled together on the couch, watching Titanic. Gabriella was crying, because Jack had just died. The credits came on, and My Heart Will Go On came on. **(I just had to do that…you'll understand if you're sami!) **Gabriella started singing along to it, because it's the most amazing song EVER!!

"Troooooy…?" Gabriella drew out the vowel in her boyfriend's name and gave the puppy dog eyes again. Troy sighed, knowing she had some other evil demand in mind. He could pretty much guess what it was as well. He sighed and passed her the remote. About five minutes later, they were watching The Notebook. **(not nearly as good as titanic, but it's okay)** Troy looked down at Gabriella to see that she had fallen asleep. Troy sighed and picked her up**. (He is soooo whipped…I loooove torturing him)** He carried her to her room, and laid her down on her bed. He was about to leave when Gabriella's phone buzzed, announcing a new text. He picked it up and just couldn't help noticing that it was from stalker dude. He opened the text and read, _Only love is worth fighting for, Gabriella. I will keep fighting for our love._

Troy ended up sleeping on Gabriella's couch **(bcuz that's not sketchy at all)** and woke up really really really early. He walked up to Gabriella's room.

"Hey, Gabi, rise and shine," he called out. There was no answer.

"Gabi? You up?" he called. Still nothing.

Trying to repress the feeling of growing terror in his stomach, he slowly walked into the room.

Gabriella's bed was still messy, her clothes still spilling out of the dresser drawers. It looked perfectly normal. There was no sign that anything was wrong. But Gabriella wasn't there.

**Awful, I know, but it's a filler chapter anyway. I'll have more action and less chick flicks in the next chapter-promise!!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Helloooooo people please don't kill me for not updating in sooooo long!! Sorry, I had major writers block, and then when I got up like, two pages of my next chapter, it got DELETED!! I was majorly annoyed, since I had to start it again, but oh well. At least I'm doing it now. I'll stop rambling so you can read the actual story now!! And thank you everyone for all the reviews!! Cookies for TKShipper, ****LuniiMunii321,****watilikeabobutu****,****TheDiamondPrincess****, ****RemyTheReaper**** (I force her to review, but she's my beta reader, so she has to…she gets a cookie too anyway…) ****shewhoshallwrite****, Grassy Leaves, and ****xxZanessaxx**** for reviewing!! I'll shut up and let you read this now!!**

Gabriella had finally stopped running. She looked around, seeing a deserted lot and a chain-link fence.

She was lost. She was alone. She was frightened.

She had seen the face in her window and started running. She had no idea where she was now. She wasn't even sure what she had been running from now.

_Will I spend my entire life like this? _Gabriella wondered. _Constantly running, looking over my shoulder for something that might not even be there?_

Without warning, large raindrops started to fall. Gabriella swore loudly. She knew she needed to get out of there. She fished her cell phone out of the pocket of her oversized sweatshirt. _Thank god I brought this, _she thought. She speed dialed Troy, who picked up on the first ring.

"Troy?"

"Oh, god, Gabi! Are you okay?" Troy's voice sounded urgent and worried. "Where are you?"

"I don't know. I'm somewhere in a huge deserted clot, with a chain-link fence and a couple of dead buildings. Do you have any idea where that is?" she asked desperately.

"Are the buildings huge apartment buildings or office blocks or something like that?" Troy asked. Gabriella nodded.

"Yeah, they look like it at least. Please, come get me, Troy. I'm scared." Gabriella begged.

"I'll be there in three minutes. Okay?" Troy questioned.

"Yeah."

"Okay, stay there, Gabi. I'll be there soon." said Troy, hanging up.

"Wait! Troy…" Gabriella's voice faded to a whisper. "Don't leave me."

"Gabriella." said a new voice, muffled by the rain.

Gabriella whipped around. She saw no one. "Who's there?" she called out nervously. There was no answer.

"Hello?" Gabriella called out again.

Someone grabbed her from behind. Gabriella let out a loud, piercing scream. A hand clapped over her mouth.

"Shut up! He'll hear you."

Gabriella twisted free of her captor and turned around. She was looking at a pale face, a boy about her age. She recognized him from somewhere…

_Flashback_

_She looked around again. Everything looked normal, a couple of kids she didn't know were on the computers, and one guy was using his phone behind the librarian's back. Everything was perfectly normal. Maybe I'm just going paranoid, she thought. She started packing up her books, and stood up. She started walking to the exit, lost in thought. She ended up walking straight into the guy who had been using his phone earlier._

"_Sorry!" she gasped. She bent down, trying to help him retrieve his scattered books and papers. He didn't say anything, just stared at her for a few seconds, then walked away abruptly. Gabriella raised her eyebrows. Looking down again, she saw he had left one paper behind. She picked it up. The page she was looking at looked blank. She flipped it over._

_Gabriella was looking at a photo of herself. It showed her bent over a paper in her chemistry class, with her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. There was a look of concentration on her face._

_How would someone get a picture of me from chem class? she wondered. I really don't like this. She looked up, but whoever had dropped it was gone._

_End Flashback_

"You…" she whispered. "You've been dong this all along…" She suddenly lashed out, hitting, kicking and punching every part of him she could reach with all the force she could muster. He grabbed her arms again.

"Stop. I'm trying to help you, Gabriella." he said quietly. "I haven't been doing this."

"Who are you, then?" Gabriella questioned. "Who are you?"

"My name isn't important." he replied. "But I need to tell you this, Gabriella."

"What?" she asked.

"I know who's been doing this." he said quietly, glancing around. "I can't say who, but be warned. He hides close to you, in plain sight, where no one thinks of looking. He attacks from the inside. I tried to get your friends away, but I couldn't save them all. I'm sorry, Gabriella. I only hope you can get out of this with your friends all alive. Don't let him get to them, or you. I'm sorry I can't help you more."

"Gabriella!" Gabriella looked up, and saw Troy's pickup truck driving into the lot. He leapt out and ran over, wrapping his arms around Gabriella's shaking form, shoving the boy aside. "Stay away from her!" he yelled.

"Troy! Stop!" Gabriella cried out. "It's not him!"

"You're right, it's not him." said a new voice. "But we can't have him telling the world about our little secret, can we, Gabriella?" The masked figure of Gabriella's stalker held up a large knife and plunged it into the boy's back. He collapsed, dead. Gabriella let out another scream. Troy let go of Gabriella and lunged forward and punched the figure in the face.

The figure did nothing, giving no indication that the punch had affected him in any way. He punched Tory in the stomach, who doubled over, wincing in pain.

"Troy!" Gabriella yelled. "Come on! Just leave him!" Troy ignored her, and instead kicked the person opposing him hard enough to make him fall over.

He kicked him once more, then turned back to Gabriella. "Come on, Gabi." Troy urged. "Leave him."

Gabriella ignored her boyfriend, and slowly approached the fallen figure. "Who are you?" she whispered. "Why are you doing this?" without warning, she suddenly pulled the mask off his face.

She was looking down at a face that she knew she had seen before, many times, but couldn't tell who it was. This was partly because he had blood all over his face, from the bloody nose Troy had given him.

But Gabriella only had a split-second glance, before he jumped up suddenly and grabbed her. Troy leapt at him from behind, forcing him to let go of Gabriella.

"Gabi, come on!" Troy yelled. He grabbed Gabriella's hand, and the couple ran to Troy's pickup. Troy started driving immediately. When Gabriella glanced back, she could see nothing of the figure through the rain.

"Oh, my god, Gabi…" Troy muttered. "Are you okay?"

Gabriella shook her head. "Troy, I knew him. I know that person." She whispered.

Troy glanced over at her worriedly. "Are you all right, Gabi?" he asked. He pulled over to the side of the road and turned to face her. "What are you talking about?"

"Troy, I know that person. I know him. I don't know who it is, but I know him." She shook her head. "I'm going crazy."

"No, you're not." Troy replied. "You're freaked out. It's okay." He enfolded Gabriella in his arms. "It's okay." He murmured. "I'm here. I won't let anything happen."

"Troy, I'm scared." Gabriella said softly. "Please don't leave me."

* * *

That night, Troy and Gabriella came back to Sharpay's house after having been at Gabriella's for nearly the entire day. They had gotten a call from Sharpay, who had been freaking out, and begged them to come over.

They arrived to find everyone else there already. "What happened?" Troy asked, staring around at all his grim-faced friends.

"Have you seen Kelsi?" Jason questioned urgently. Troy noticed he was standing alone, which struck him as odd, because he had figured Kelsi would have been there. He shook his head. "No, why?" he asked. "Where is she?"

"She's gone."

* * *

It was a long night.

Everyone stayed at Sharpay's again. The TV was on, but no one was watching. Gabriella had fallen asleep, her head pillowed in Troy's lap. Almost everyone else was sitting awake, staring into space, lost in their own thoughts.

Gabriella suddenly found herself in a dark somewhere. She had no idea where. She could see the faces she had seen before, the boy who had been killed, his killer, the person who was doing this. She knew him.

"You think you know me. I know you, Gabriella. I know you..." his voice started echoing. "I know you…I know you…I know you…"

"He hides in plain sight." said the voice of the boy she had watched die. "Don't let him get to you. Don't let him…don't let him…" his voice started to echo as well.

The face of the stalker loomed out of the darkness. "Who am I, Gabriella?" the face asked. More, all the same face, appeared out of the shadows. "Who am I?" "Who am I?" "Who am I?" th were all asking.

Gabriela started to scream. Her screams woke her up to find herself in another dark room, with Troy bending over her. "Gabi! Gabi, it's okay. It's okay. It's only a dream." He was saying.

Gabriela was dimly aware of the light turning on, voices from below getting louder, all asking the same question. She registered Troy holding her, nothing else. She realized she was crying.

"Shhh, Gabi, it's okay, I'm here. I won't let anything happen. I promise." she heard Troy say. "It's okay." But he was wrong.

It couldn't be okay, they couldn't just take this all away. She knew it. She knew it now. She closed her eyes, and the stalker's face appeared again.

And she knew.

"Troy." she said softly. "I know who it is."

**Dun dun dun…scary music…I can't say I was very happy with how it ended, but I really needed to get this up today, and I have been exiled from the computer at my mother's house. So I have like, no time to finish this, so I had to do it now. Please review!!**


	12. Chapter 12

**No A/N, there's one at the end, but you probably don't want to listen to a long rambling a/n right now when I haven't updated in 3 weeks…please don't kill me!!!! & review!!!!!!!!!!!!**

**RECAP!-**

_It couldn't be okay, they couldn't just take this all away. She knew it. She knew it now. She closed her eyes, and the stalker's face appeared again._

_And she knew._

"_Troy." she said softly. "I know who it is."_

* * *

Troy looked up sharply. "What?"

Gabriella shook her head. "I keep seeing him…hearing him…" she paused and looked away. "He hides close to you, in plain sight, where no one thinks of looking…it was him…I never saw..." she closed her eyes, shaking her head.

"Gabi, who? Who is it?" Troy asked urgently.

"Zeke." said Gabriella abruptly, snapping her eyes open.

"What about him?" asked Troy.

"I think it's him."

"Gabi, are you okay?" Troy replied worriedly. "It can't be Zeke. He loves Sharpay. He's crazy about her."

Gabriella shook her head. "It's what I saw." she said. "I saw his face. I've been hearing him for the past two months. It's him, I know it."

Troy took her hand. "Gabi, I know you're scared, and really freaked out." he said softly. "But it can't be Zeke."

"Troy, you have to believe me!" Gabriella begged. "I know it's him! I know it is!" she grew deadly serious and lowered her voice. "You have to believe me." she said softly.

Troy sighed. "Okay, Gabi." he said. "Why don't we at least try to figure out some stuff about all of this before we start pointing fingers?"

Gabriella sighed. "Fine. Taylor!" she yelled her friend's name at the top of her lungs. Taylor came running. "Hey. Do you think you could trace where the emails I've been getting from my stalker have been coming from?" she asked conversationally.

"Sure." Taylor replied, looking bewildered. She walked over to Sharpay's fluffy pink-surrounded computer. The screen opened up to a picture of a unicorn and a small box requesting a password. "What's Shar's password?" she asked.

"I love me," Troy and Gabriella both responded. Taylor tried it, which (not very surprisingly) worked. The screen opened up to a picture of Sharpay and Zeke. Taylor opened up internet and got onto Gabriella's email. She found the most recent message, and began typing.

Troy and Gabriella retreated to Sharpay's pink bed. "Troy, I'm worried about Kelsi." Gabriella said softly.

"Don't worry. She probably just went home or something." Troy reassured her. "She'll probably show up in about an hour, and we'll all realize how stupid we are."

Gabriella gave a small smile. "I wish it were that simple." she mirrored her smile, tucking her bangs out of her face and letting his hand rest on her cheek. She looked up at him, her brown eyes wide with fear, and then he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, snaking one arm around her waist. After a tentative moment she relaxed and pressed her lips firmly against his.**(this romantic bit was written by RemyTheReaper)**

"Hey, guys." Taylor's voice cut through their little romance. "I've got the address."

Troy and Gabriella hurried over to the computer. "164 Water Street…" Gabriella read off the screen.

"Isn't that part of the abandoned part of town?" Troy asked.

Taylor pulled up a Mapquest. "Close." she replied. "It's nearby, on the outskirts of there. Pretty near the place where Gabi saw her little stalker last time. My guess is that we'll find this guy-or at least a hint as to who he is-if we head over there." She made a motion as to get up. Gabriella stopped her.

"Wait." she said. "See if we can get anything from ."

Taylor obliged. "Marie Robbins. Anyone heard of her?" she questioned.

Both shook their heads. Taylor sighed. "Nothing's ever easy." she muttered. She went on Google and searched Marie Robbins. A large amount of results came up. About halfway down the second page, Taylor found something-a divorce notice in the Albuquerque Times. "Guys, look at this." she said. "Marie Robbins would like to notify a divorce from her former spouse…" Taylor scrolled down quickly. "Robbins lives alone, in the outskirts of Albuquerque. She is in her late forties, and has one son, who she was forced to give up custody of." Taylor's eyes widened. "Look, you guys…there's a picture." she scrolled down further, and waved the mouse around at a picture of a black woman. "Why does she look familiar?"

Gabriella glanced at Troy significantly, giving him a look saying, don't tell Taylor. Troy nodded once. Taylor noticed nothing.

"Come on, guys. I'm going to check out this house." she said, standing up. "You coming?"

Troy and Gabriella looked at each other and nodded. "Yeah." Troy replied. "We'll go. You guys should stay, in case Kelsi shows up."

Taylor looked slightly suspicious, seeming to catch on that the couple knew more than they were letting on. "Okay…" she replied. "Can I tell the others?"

"No!" Gabriella responded sharply. Taylor looked over at her friend with raised eyebrows. Much to Gabriella's relief, she made no response.

"Go get Jason. He'll probably be more of a hindrance than a help if he stays here, and he could help us find Kelsi." Gabriella directed. Troy disappeared downstairs. Gabriella opened a new Word Document and typed a note to her friends, then left.

* * *

About twenty minutes later, Troy, Gabriella and Jason stood outside a rundown-looking white house. Jason was reading over the article that Gabriella had cleverly printed up, since Troy and Gabriella weren't offering any explanations.

"Come on." said Troy. He took Gabriella's hand and led her up to the door. Jason followed them.

Troy knocked cautiously. An angry-looking woman appeared, opening the door only enough to stick out her face to see her visitors.

"What do you want? Did Paul send you?" she asked crossly. "Tell him no matter what, I won't go groveling back to him! His fault that I'm living like this! His fault I got nothing! All his evil little manipulation, all him, convincing them all that I didn't deserve to see my son anymore!" She made to slam the door, but Troy stopped her.

"Ma'am, I just wanted to ask you a few questions." he started. The woman opened the door a few more inches.

"No! What are you, the god-damn police?" she snapped. "Go crawling back to Paul, they say…Don't try me! Get away from me! And tell Paul to keep his damn son!" She slammed the door in Troy's face.

"Hey, guys…" said Jason hesitantly. "Does the name Baylor sound familiar to you? Because I know I've heard it somewhere, and I don't remember where! It's so irritating!"

"That would be Zeke's last name." Gabriella replied tersely.

"Why are we around where his mom lives?" Jason asked curiously. "Cause this article says some woman divorced Zeke's dad, and I'm going to guess it was his mother. And it says she lives around here."

Gabriella's thoughts were racing around at five hundred miles an hour, crashing into each other. Nothing made sense, but somehow one thought was getting through. They had just been talking to Zeke's mother. She looked over to where the abandoned office blocks and apartments loomed up, reaching for the dusky sky. The emails had been sent from somewhere…close to where Gabriella had seen her stalker last…

What if he was hiding it all in essentially one place?

He could hide hostages in the buildings, and sneak into his mother's house to send the threatening emails…and the phone messages could have easily been from a disposable phone, like you could get for 10 bucks at Walgreens…

It was Zeke. She had been right.

"Troy….Jason…"she started softly. "It's Zeke. It's him."

"It's a real shame that you're right." said a voice behind her. "Because that would mean I would have to make sure your mouth stayed shut."

Gabriella turned around slowly. Standing there, holding a gun up against Taylor's head, was Zeke. Gabriella looked around. She was alone, trapped with her stalker. Everyone else(except Taylor) was gone.

**DUN DUN DUN DUN…ahhh the suspense! I love it!!!!! Sorry for not updating (again) but I was very busy. Also one of my bestest bfflz moved to Georgia, which is nowhere near where I live. SADNESS!!!!!!! I miss her soooo much!!!!! So anyway, that's one of my excuses. Whatever. PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!! I would write more, but I have to go do my latin and english HW now!!!!! And it's like 8 and I haven't started yet!!!!!! (I'm in trouble I know)**


	13. AN, sorry!

**Sorry guys, just an A/N…**

**Hello, everyone, I was just looking over this, and I realized that I have no ideas at all for it!!!! (no good ones anyway) I also have major writers block and was very discouraged by the lack of reviews on the last chapter. So, here's my solution. For the first time, I am (officially) putting a story on hiatus!!!! I may end up deleting it, too…it's turning into utter crap. If you want to save this story from being deleted, then review!!!!! Also review if you have ideas, or ideas about ideas, or ANYTHING that you think would help me out of my writers block with this. Thanks!!!!!**

**-Whisper**


	14. Chapter 13

**Helloooooooooo faithful readers!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you **_**everyone **_**for the reviews and ideas!!!!!!!! As you can probably tell, I decided to not delete this, because people seem to actually like it, but you have to keep expressing that you like it!!!!!!!!! Please review!!!!!!!! And thank you everyone who gave me ideas!!!!!!!!!! You guys are the reason I'm posting so soon!!!!!!! Actually, I would have had this up yesterday, but I lost it because I forgot to save it like an idiot. It was also saved on the computer at my dad's house, so that kinda doesn't work out. :P Oh well. I'll stop rambling and let you actually read this now!!!!!! I also have to give credit to my awesome beta reader, RemyTheReaper. She writes HSM stuffs too, and she has a few scary ones (hidden in the dark, and its sequel) so you should go read them. and review. because she likes reviews. even though she wrote those stories, like, 2 years ago, they were half the reason i started writing so much suspense. so yeah. RemyTheReaper is my beta reader, and she's awesome, and i'm giving her credit for beta-reading this, and for writing half the romance (more like all of it) in this story, because, in case you haven't noticed, i suck at romance. yay, i gave her credit now, so she can stop bugging me about it!!!!! jk, you're awesome...don't kill me...WOW this turned out to be a much longer A/N than i thought...my bad...i really will shut up and let you read the story now. **

**ALSO, I need to warn you all-there is a lot of swearing in this chapter, but it was NESSECARY. Yeah. Just thought I'd warn you. **

_RECAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

"_It's a real shame that you're right." said a voice behind her. "Because that would mean I would have to make sure your mouth stayed shut."_

_Gabriella turned around slowly. Standing there, holding a gun up against Taylor's head, was Zeke. Gabriella looked around. She was alone, trapped with her stalker. Everyone else (except Taylor) was gone._

_

* * *

_

"You." Gabriella whispered. She had never been so sorry to be proven right. "You're the one who's been doing this all along."

Zeke smiled. He didn't seem to regret it. "Yes." he replied.

"Zeke, you're wrong. You don't love me. You love Sharpay. You can't love me."

Zeke let out a chilling laugh. "Did you really believe that?" he questioned. "It was just a cover. With that pink, frilly, unicorn obsession, and me worshipping the ground she walked on, who would suspect my true love? It all worked out so well. Ryan, though…he was catching on to a bit much. I guess the gay one wasn't as dumb as I thought. But we worked it all out okay, right?"

"How could you, you bastard?" Gabriella suddenly screamed. "Do you have any idea what the hell you've put us all through? What you've put me through?"

Zeke glanced at her sharply. "Do you have any idea what you've put _me _through?" he snapped. "Watching you going around with that bastard every day, knowing you deserve so much better, and knowing you would never be mine? But of course, the Bolton bastard had to have the best. Only the best for him, no matter what anyone else wants, as long as he's happy."

"You're the bastard." Gabriella said quietly.

"No, Gabriella, I am in love. And you should know by now I go to drastic measures to get what I want." Zeke replied carelessly. "You deserve so much better than Bolton. You know that. We deserve each other."

"I love Troy, not you." Gabriella replied angrily. "I will never love you."

Zeke let go of Taylor, who collapsed. He slowly approached Gabriella. "What did you say?" he asked in a low, menacing voice.

"I will never love you. Never."

Zeke slapped her across the face. "You know you love me, Gabriella. You don't need to deny it."

"I hate you."

Another smack.

"Don't try me, Gabriella. I won't kill you, but I am still perfectly capable of killing your friend-" he jerked his head in Taylor's direction "-or anyone else who might stand in our way.""Stay away from Troy. If you really loved me, you'd let us all be." Gabriella said defiantly, turning away from Zeke.

Zeke grabbed her face and turned it towards him. "I do love you, Gabriella." he said softly. "That's why I am making you happy. Bolton will only give you heartbreak. You've seen what he did to Sharpay. I made her happy by pretending to love her. Right now, she's sitting at home with Chad, probably squabbling over what to watch on TV. They both think that Taylor's in the bathroom, and I got a call from my dad telling me to come home. And they're has happy as they can be now, with Ryan's death and all. Shame that they don't know the truth."

"You've only made me miserable, can't you see that?" Gabriella whispered, her eyes glittering with unshed tears. "Get out of my life, stay away from all my friends, and I'll be happy! You just won't be there to see it."

"You won't be happy with that Bolton brat. Not for long. Believe me, I know it. He'll be cheating on you with a cheerleader before the year's out. He doesn't love you. I love you."

"Troy loves me. I love him, and not you. Never you. I will never love you." Gabriella replied, staring at him, her eyes full of hate.

Zeke let go of her suddenly and turned to Taylor, who was huddled on the ground a few steps away.

"Taylor!" said Zeke loudly. "Let's have _your_ opinion. It seems no one cares what you think anymore. What do you say? Should Gabriella be with Troy, or with me?"

Taylor struggled into a sitting position, and glared at Zeke defiantly. "Gabriella…deserves better. She should…never be with…you." she choked out, clutching her chest.

"What, Taylor? I don't think I heard you quite correctly." Zeke said softly, walking up to Taylor so that he was less than a foot away from her. "Could you say that again?"

"Gabriella…should never…be with…you." Taylor gasped out. Zeke kicked her hard in the stomach, and she doubled over, wincing.

"Wrong." he replied. "Do you know what happens when you get the wrong answer around here?"

Taylor shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "Leave them…alone." she managed. "Gabriella…deserves better…than you."

Zeke shook his head. "Silly girl." he said dismissively. "You used to be so smart." He held up the gun. "I wonder what sense is left in that head of yours?" he took aim and shot.

The sound of the shot mingled with Gabriella's scream, as blood began to blossom around Taylor's still body.

_

* * *

_

_Troy's POV_

Troy opened his eyes to find himself lying on some hard surface, a few feet off the floor. He was staring at a broken light fixture, which looked ready to fall on his face and kill him. He also had a killer headache. (like, worse than the one I had last night, and it took two Ibuprofin and more than half an hour to get rid of it. Ouch.)

Troy sat up cautiously, and looked around. He appeared to be in an old, deserted office cubicle or something.

"Hello?" he called out, realizing it wasn't really the brightest thing to be doing, but he had nothing else he could do. "Gabi? Jason? Anyone?"

"Troy?" a voice called out.

"Jason?" Troy identified the voice as his friend. "Where are you?"

"Where you aren't." Jason's voice came from somewhere to Troy's right. Troy left the dead office and started following his friend's voice.

"I had no idea." Troy replied. "Where are you?"

"I have no idea either." said Jason. He sounded close by. Troy turned a corner and saw Jason doodling on a whiteboard with some old markers. Troy was surprised they still worked.

"Troy?" Jason yelled, starting to draw an elaborate heart around Kelsi's name. "Why aren't you talking?"

"I've been rendered speechless by your lovely art." Troy said. Jason spun around.

"What, you really like it? Or are you just saying that?" he asked. Troy was left to wonder if Jason was really as dumb as he acted.

"No. Come on, let's get out of here." Troy replied.

"We can't, unless you feel like jumping out a five-story-high window." Jason said. "We're trapped on this floor. I mean, we can go up, but the jump would kill us no matter where we go. And the door getting us downstairs is blocked. There was like, a cave-in or something. I don't know how they got us up."

"Probably a barred-off elevator." Troy replied. "We've got to get out, though. Jason, Gabi's out there with her stalker. She could be in big trouble. We've got to find some way to get out of here."

Jason shrugged. "Okay. Maybe Kelsi can help."

"Kelsi? She's here?"

"Probably somewhere. Or maybe it was a huge coincidence that we got kidnapped by someone who looks just like Zeke, and Kelsi's been hidden in the building next door." Jason said. "I think she's here though, because didn't Gabriella's stalker take her too?"

Troy nodded. "That actually makes sense, Jason. Wow."

"I try." said Jason modestly. "So, are we going to find Kelsi, make her get us out of here, and then go rescue Gabriella?"

Troy nodded. "Sounds good. Do you want to split up and cover this floor?"

Jason shook his head incredulously. "Dude, haven't you seen all the scary movies? When you split up, then the killer gets you one by one. You have to stay together."

Troy decided not to remind Jason that they were dealing with a stalker, not a killer, hopefully.

"Fine, man. We'll stay together." he replied. He started down a long corridor, with Jason running behind him like a puppy dog.

"Dude, I don't think she's here." said Jason twenty minutes later.

The two had looked all over the entire floor, and found no sign of Kelsi.

"Hey, dude, what about down here?" Troy asked, pointing down a corridor he didn't think they had been down yet.

Jason shrugged. "Okay." he replied. They started down the corridor. Troy thought he heard something coming from one of the rooms branching off the hallway.

"Come on," he said, slowly beckoning Jason towards it. Jason hurried to catch up with Troy, who was cautiously opening the door.

"Hello?" he called. "Kelsi?"

**DUN DUN DUN…yeah. My wonderful scary ending so far. And in case anyone is wondering, this story is NOT almost over. I intend to have at least 5 more chapters. Thank you for all the ideas and I will try to update again soon!!! But if I get no reviews, then I will think of deleting this again!!!!! I'm serious!!!!! PLEASE REVIEW BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO DELETE THIS ANY MORE THAN YOU WANT ME TO, BUT IF NO ONE LIKES IT I DON'T SEE THE POINT OF CONTINUING TO POST. AND I DON'T GET INSPARATION EITHER. YEAH. SO PLEEEEEEASE REVIEW!**


	15. Chapter 14

**Hiiiiiiiiiiiii people…I realized I haven't updated in a while, and I got over 100 reviews (THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR REVIEWING!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I won't have a chance to update again for a while (I don't think) so I figured I should do that now…yeah. Please review and happy almost-thanksgiving! and this is a filler chapter, sorry...i'll make up for it with a really long chapter asap...but you have to review!!!!!!!!! please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**

"Come on, Gabriella." said Zeke dismissively, stepping over Taylor's still body. He roughly grabbed Gabriella's arm. "How could you?" Gabriella burst out, tears streaming down her cheeks. "Do you have any idea what this is doing to me?" She shook her head. "No. If you claim to love me, then why are you doing this to me?"Zeke sighed. "You don't understand, Gabriella. I thought you were smart. I am doing this for us. They wouldn't let us be together." He gestured to Taylor.

"The only thing standing between us is that I _don't love you_!" Gabriella suddenly burst out.

Zeke smacked her across the face. "Don't say that again, Gabriella." he said menacingly. "Do you want to keep little Bolton alive a little longer?"

"Leave Troy alone." Gabriella said in a low voice. "Leave them all alone."

"Come with me, and I've forgotten about them." Zeke replied carelessly. "I don't care about any of them. They are all nothing to me. Only you matter to me. The others-" he gestured to Taylor again- "Are dispensable. I can kill them without caring. And I will, if they stand in our way. But they won't, will they, Gabriella?"

Gabriella shook her head. "Just leave them all alone, and I'll do what you want." she whispered.

By way of answer, Zeke jerked her around to the waiting van. "Forget about them, Gabriella." he said softly. "You don't need them. We have each other."

_Troy's POV_

Troy slowly walked forward, Jason following him. A slight figure huddled in the corner shrank away from the boys as they approached. "Stay away from me." it whispered. "Leave us all alone."

"Who are you?" Troy asked softly.

"You only know too well." the figure snapped. Their face was in shadows, but Troy knew their voice.

"Kelsi, it's me." Troy said.

"Wait, so the angry person is Kelsi?" said Jason, sounding confused.

Kelsi let out a small laugh. "Yes, Jason." she said. "Sorry. I thought you were Zeke."

Troy nodded. "I kind of figured." he replied. "Are you okay?"

Kelsi shrugged, struggling to sit up and failing until Jason went to her aid. "As okay as I'll ever be in this hell." she said. "Did he get you, or are you here with police, by some miracle?"

"Sorry, no miracles yet." Jason responded, helping Kelsi stand up. She swayed dangerously. Jason caught her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Careful, lean on me." he said softly.

"You being here is a miracle itself." Kelsi said. "I thought I was going to just die alone there."

"No one's going to die." Troy said firmly, leading them out of the small room and back to the main hall.

"And you won't be alone, either." Jason said quietly. "I promise."

_Sharpay's POV_

"Chad, give it back!" Sharpay screamed. "Right now!" She stamped her high heel on the rug, which wasn't very effective because it was on the rug. Chad laughed.

"Chill, it's just wrestling." he muttered, holding the remote above his head, where Sharpay couldn't reach.

Sharpay was about to start screaming again when her Sidekick with the rhinestone unicorn started ringing, blasting some random ultra-preppy pop song. Caller ID identified it as Taylor.

"Taylooooor," she whined, "You like, abandoned me. Pleeeeeease tell your boyfriend to give me back the stupid remote!"

"Sharpay…" Taylor whispered. "Let me talk…to Chad."

"Taylor? Are you okay?" Sharpay asked urgently, turning away from Chad. "What's wrong?"

"I'm…hurt. Really bad." Taylor managed to get out. "Put…Chad on."

Sharpay handed the phone to Chad wordlessly. "Hey, baby." he said, grinning. "What's up?"

Sharpay watched her friend's face as the smile left it, and was replaced by a look of complete seriousness and urgency-which was beyond unusual for Chad.

"We'll be right there." she heard him say. Chad hung up and turned to her.

"Come on." he said, not bothering to turn off the TV. "We've got to get to the west side of town."

"Why? What's going on? Chad?" Sharpay called, running after him as they raced out to his beat-up Honda.

Chad turned to Sharpay, looking at her over the hood of the car. "Taylor's been shot. She's really hurt. We need to get to her. She said someone shot her and took Gabriella away with him." He got into the car. Sharpay followed.

"Chad, who was it? Did she see?" Sharpay questioned. Chad stared ahead, into the rain that was starting to fall.

"It was Zeke."

**Dun dun dun…that was my ridiculously short chapter…huge filler chapter…but I'm too lazy to write anymore right now…sorry…I'll try to post again if you review. I have an idea for a really long, scary chapter next, but you need to review to read it! Also, you should go read Pick Up The Phone, by mzdarkstar, because it's an AWESOME story…it's kinda like this but it's a Sharpay centric. And I had to have all my lovely Jelsi…that's the pairing I care about more than any other in HSM…so there's going to be a lot (for me) in this and the next few chapters. And I found it necessary to tell you that for absolutely no reason at all. Oh well. Aaaaaaaaaand, again, RemyTheReaper is my beta reader, and she's awesome, so you should read her stories. And tell her she should learn to kill people in stories!!!!!! Gosh!!!!!!! Okay. Random rant over. Please review!!!!!!!!!**


	16. Chapter 15

_**Hey, people, I'm still alive! I know the last chapter I posted was awful, but I was tired and just felt guilty about not posting, so that kinda sucked. I honestly don't blame you for not reviewing, even though I KNOW you all read it. Seriously. Just tell me you like it, tell me you hate it, tell me anything, just please review! And if you don't review this chapter, I will be not happy. Because I'm under the impression (could be wrong) that this will be better than the last chapter. That one was a boring filler chapter anyway. I admit it. Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Also, I am going to give credit to my awesome beta reader again…RemyTheReaper beta read this and she's awesome. Go read her stuff. :P**_

_RECAP!_

_Gabriella shook her head. "Just leave them all alone, and I'll do what you want." she whispered._

_By way of answer, Zeke jerked her around to the waiting van. "Forget about them, Gabriella." he said softly. "You don't need them. We have each other."_

_

* * *

_

Gabriella was sitting in the back of a van, tied up and blindfolded. "it's a necessary precaution, Gabriella." he had said. "I'm sure you'll be a good girl now, but what if you start getting ideas when all your friends are gone? We wouldn't want you to get lost, would we?" Hearing it had made Gabriella want to throw up.

"Where are we going?" she wondered out loud. Zeke heard her and decided to answer.

"You'll see, Gabriella." he replied softly. "I'm glad I didn't have to force you into this. Are you starting to realize your true feelings?"

"No." Gabriella whispered, inaudibly. Zeke took her apparent silence for a yes, and smiled.

"I'm glad, Gabriella. I don't want to hurt you. You know I love you. You will realize." he said calmly. Zeke's cell phone started ringing, cutting him off from what would have been a long, passionate speech about how much he loved Gabriella. She found herself missing Troy more than ever. She wished she could just have him hold her in his arms once more, tell her he was okay, take away the pain and fear that enclosed her, protect her the way he had so many times, the way she hadn't been able to do for him.

"I'm sorry." she whispered. "I'm sorry to put you through this."

The van screeched to an abrupt halt. Gabriella slid across the floor and slammed into the wall of the back of the van.

"Damnit!" Zeke yelled, also saying a bunch of words that would up the rating on the story if I wrote them. "Your friends are causing more trouble than they're worth, Gabriella." he said dangerously. "It would be a shame if I had to attend to them sooner than I had hoped."

Gabriella said a silent prayer, hoping that all of her friends were okay, and would be able to escape the way that she never could. The can turned around, taking Gabriella back to people she only wished she could run far away from, to protect them in the only way she could, for the last time.

_Troy's POV_

_RECAP!_

"_No one's going to die." Troy said firmly, leading them out of the small room and back to the main hall. _

"_And you won't be alone, either." Jason said quietly. "I promise."_

_

* * *

_

Troy peered down another dark corridor. "Kelsi, does the guy have accomplices running around everywhere, or are we alone?" he questioned. "I really don't want to meet anyone."

Kelsi shook her head. "The only one I knew about was a guy at our school," she said. "He either got blackmailed and threatened into this, or bribed. I don't know much about him, I just think he was a loner who Zeke saw as a good accomplice-someone to pin blame on, I guess. I think he was the one who was supposed to do the dirty work." She paused for a minute, leaning against Jason heavily, trying to stay upright. "He disappeared a little bit ago, though. It's weird. He usually comes around a few times a day. It's kind of worrying me. What if he's lying in wait for us somewhere with a gun?" Kelsi sounded nervous.

"He's dead." Troy answered. He had not meant to say it so flatly, but he couldn't think of a way to phrase it more nicely.

Kelsi shivered. "I don't want to think if that's a good thing or not." she said softly. "I wish I could just escape from this nightmare."

"That's the thing about nightmares, though." Troy burst out suddenly. "You can escape. You can wake up, and turn on the light and banish all the big scary creatures from your dreams, because they're just dreams. This is different, Kelsi. Someone we thought was our friend has kidnapped my girlfriend for god knows what sick reason, and is holding us here. The people that die here, they're really dead. They're really gone. And they were really murdered by one of our best friends. You can wish all you want to wake up, but eventually, you'll have to face the reality. You're not waking up. This is no nightmare. This is real. And there's no escape from reality." He turned away from them.

Kelsi, instead of being put off, left Jason's side and slowly approached him. "Troy, what's wrong?" she asked quietly, laying a small hand on his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he snapped. "We're trapped here, my girlfriend might be dying right now, my friends might be dying or dead, and we're sitting ducks! We could die too! One of our best friends has gone crazy and is killing us off one by one, and we could be next, and we can't do a thing about it. That's what's wrong. We might as well shoot ourselves, get to our deaths a little faster."

"Troy! Stop it!" Kelsi snapped. "Look, I know you're scared and frustrated, and worried about everybody else. But this isn't the way to figure out a way out of here. Stop blaming us for this, because we can't do anything more about it than you."

"Shut up, Kelsi." Troy muttered. "You don't understand."

Something inside Kelsi snapped. "Don't tell me I don't understand." she said in a low voice. "I've been trapped here, alone, beaten, starved, wondering if he was just going to pull out a gun and shoot me every time he walked by. I know what it's like to want to give up. I almost did. Don't tell me I don't get it, because I do, more than you ever will, and I'm not talking it out on you." She turned away and moved back towards Jason, starting to stumble.

"Are you okay?" Jason asked. Kelsi nodded.

"I'm fine. I'm just…" she stopped and swayed on the spot.

"Kelsi?" Jason asked worriedly.

Troy turned around to see Kelsi leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. "I'm sorry." she said quietly. "I'm just tired. I'll be fine."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "Kelsi…" he started.

Kelsi took a step away from the wall and collapsed, falling into a small huddle on the floor.

"Kelsi!" Jason yelled, bending over her still body. Troy hurried back to his friend, who was checking for a pulse.

"I think she just fainted. She's really weak." Troy said worriedly.

Jason shrugged. "Is she going to be okay?" he questioned.

Troy shook his head. "I don't know, Jason." he responded. "See if you can get her to wake up." He turned and started walking away. "I'm going to try and find something to help her." he called over his shoulder. Jason barely nodded as his friend walked away on his own.

_Taylor's POV_

_RECAP!_

"_Chad, who was it? Did she see?" Sharpay questioned. Chad stared ahead, into the rain that was starting to fall._

"_It was Zeke."_

_

* * *

_

Rain had started up, keeping Taylor in consciousness, if only for a few minutes. _That's all I'll need, _she thought grimly. She took off the sweatshirt she wore as best she could without doing anything to her bleeding arm, and wound it tightly around the gunshot. She saw headlights appearing out of the haze of rain before she blacked out.

The next thing she knew, she was lying in the backseat of a car. She identified it to be Chad's by the smell. She tried to call out, tried to tell them what had happened, tried to warn them about Zeke, who had taken Gabriella away, but all she could manage was a groan. At the noise, Chad twisted around, swerving the car dangerously.

"Taylor?" he said. "Are you awake?"

"Yes, she's awake, you idiot, she totally moves and opens her eyes and tries to talk all in her sleep." Sharpay's voice snapped sarcastically.

"Actually…" Chad began.

"How do you know what she does when she sleeps?" Sharpay cut him off. "I don't want to know. Taylor, we're going to be at the hospital soon, dumbass here forgot his phone and refused to ask anyone around here to use one."

Taylor tried to respond, but started to feel blackness take over again. This time, she let it, instead of fighting, and blacked out again.

Taylor soon found herself lying in a hospital, with Chad sitting in a chair next to the bed, his face buried in his arms. She tried to reach out and play with his hair, like she loved to do, but couldn't lift her arm. She glanced down and saw a white bandage wrapped around her left arm.

"Chad?" she managed to get out, her voice slightly hoarse from lack of use.

Chad's head shot up off his arms. "Taylor, thank god you're all right!" he exclaimed. "Do you know what happened? Do you remember anything?"

Did she remember anything? "I don't know." she replied groggily. "What happened?"

"You were over at the west side of town, and Gabriella was there, too." Chad began. "Do you remember anything about that?"

Yes, she did remember…someone's hand grabbing her and hauling her out of a dark van, Gabriella standing alone, terrified…

"It was the person who's been stalking Gabriella." Chad continued. "They had been beating you up, we don't know why, and they ended up shooting you in the arm."

A foot connecting with her gut, as she lay on the cold asphalt…Gabriella going to her aid…a gun being pulled…a glimpse of a face…a deafening blast, followed by excruciating pain…

"You called me, and me and Sharpay came and got you." he said. "We got you here as fast as we could, and the doctors took over. We'd been waiting all day to get in." He smiled slightly. "Do you remember any of that?"

Taylor nodded. "Almost all." she responded. "Chad, I know who it was."Chad nodded. "I know." he said. "You told me on the phone. You said it was-"

"It was Zeke!" Taylor cut him off. "It was! I saw his face, I heard him talking, I know who it was!" She looked over at her boyfriend desperately. "Chad, you have to believe me." she said quietly.

Chad nodded. "I know. I do." he said. "Calm down. The doctor said that if you woke up, you should try to keep calm." He placed a hand over hers, pressing down lightly. "I'm sorry, Taylor. I'm sorry I wasn't there."

Taylor shook her head. "You have nothing to be sorry for. None of this is your fault." she replied. Chad pulled her into his arms and held her for a long moment. "I'm still sorry." he whispered into her hair.

"Does Sharpay know?" Taylor finally asked, pulling away.

Chad shook his head. "She won't listen to me." he said.

Taylor took a deep breath. "I'll talk to her." she said.

**Ugh, not as awesome as I hoped, but there was Jelsi, which just pwns. I know this was supposed to be a more epic chapter, but I'm reeeeeeally tired. I'll probably do some revisions when I'm not half-dead. :P Please review!!!!!!!!!!!!! I won't post again if I don't get reviews! I might just end up not finishing it, because I need encouragement!!!!!! And I know you've been reading this…my stats page tells me things…evil things…thank you for so many people reading this though!!!!!**


	17. Chapter 16

**Sorry about not updating, people, I kinda died (high school will do that to you!) and had a fight with my friend because she kept saying I liked one of her boyfriends (I hate his guts, for the record, SARAH) and screaming at her for a week about it has been very time consuming! But I'm back, because we kinda worked it out, and I just realized I have been neglecting this story a lot and I feel bad! Thank you sooooo much everyone for all your lovely reviews! Please keep them coming, and I'll try to post again soon! It's also my birthday this coming Friday, so you should get me reviews for my birthday! (I ask for strange things…one friend is getting me gum for my birthday.) And I will stop my strange ramblings now, and RemyTheReaper is my beta reader. And she's awesome. Okay, shutting up…NOW!**

After what could have been a few minutes or hours (Gabriella had long since lost track of time) the van shuddered to a halt. She heard Zeke getting out and coming around to the back of the van, and opening the door. He ripped the blindfold off her face, and hauled her out of the van roughly. She looked around, trying to discern her surroundings through the dark and the rain.

"Where are we?" she questioned. Zeke chose not to answer.

"Come on." he grabbed her arm and started dragging her in a random direction, where a huge building cast its shadow across the sky. Over the sound of the wind, Gabriella thought she heard voices. She was debating breaking away from Zeke to go to whoever it was and hope Zeke wouldn't start shooting at them, knowing she was there, when Zeke realized they were not alone. He drew his gun and slapped a hand over Gabriella's mouth. She started struggling again, but her weak body was no match for her captor. He led her towards the voices, who Gabriella recognized.

"Why the hell are we stopping?" she heard a boy asking.

"Is it my fault the car broke down?" another voice snapped. Gabriella thought it was Chad and Sharpay. What about Taylor? she wondered. Could she be all right? Could this possibly work out? Then she remembered her surroundings. She remembered a psychotic guy with a gun and every opportunity to kill her and her friends stood between their freedom and well-being. She tried to call out to her friends, but Zeke was still holding a hand over her mouth.

"It's them." he whispered, more to himself than his captive. "It's just convenient that I had done some car tampering, and they ended up breaking down right around here, isn't it, Gabriella? Maybe they can be with Taylor a little sooner than I had planned."

"Did you hear that?" Sharpay's voice questioned. Chad swore.

"Sharpay, get in the car and see if you can start it up. Zeke might be here." he said in a low voice, almost inaudible above the rain.

"Chad, it wasn't him! Taylor was wrong, Gabriella was wrong, you're all wrong! Zeke loves me, not her! He wouldn't do this to us!" Sharpay yelled shrilly.

"Sharpay, keep your voice down." Chad muttered.

"No." she responded. Zeke and Gabriella inched closer. "If it's Zeke, then I can prove to you he's not doing this, you retards. And if it's the one who is doing this, I would like to give him something up his ass." She had probably been making a rude hand gesture.

Zeke smiled. "So funny how wrong you can be, Sharpay." he said loudly, shoving Gabriella towards her friends and walking up behind her, holding up his gun. "It's too bad it won't help you now." He aimed his gun at her, getting ready to shoot.

"No!" Gabriella screamed. "Leave them alone. It's not them you want. It's me."

Zeke shrugged. "They'll die eventually, Gabriella." he responded.

"You BASTARD!" Sharpay screamed suddenly. She was staring at Zeke with murder in her eyes, being forcibly restrained from running at him by Chad. "How the hell could you do this to me? To all of us?"Zeke shrugged.

"You should know that I always get what I want, Sharpay." he replied calmly. "This is what I want." He gestured to Gabriella with his gun. Sharpay, who had apparently been rendered speechless, was staring at Zeke, looking ready to kill. Zeke, who had been pointing his gun at the ground, aimed it at Sharpay and Chad again.

"Come on." he said, gesturing to a spot several feet away from him. Sharpay walked over to where he was pointing, but Chad stayed. "Move it," Zeke said again, aiming at his head. Chad joined Sharpay, walking as slowly as was possible, as if to show that he was not doing this because he wanted to. Zeke started leading the group up towards the building.

"I'm sorry, guys." Gabriella whispered. Sharpay shook her head.

"This isn't your fault, Gabriella." she replied, putting an arm around her friend. "It's his."

"Stay away from Gabriella!" Zeke shouted, ramming the gun into Sharpay's back. Sharpay made a face and let go of Gabriella, discreetly slipping something into her sweatshirt pocket. Gabriella opened her mouth, but caught a warning glance from Sharpay, and turned group made their way into the abandoned apartment building and up several floors. They stopped, and Zeke pointed them down a hall. He led them into a small apartment and made them back up against the wall.

"I'll be back." he said, walking out and locking the door behind them.

The minute he was gone, Gabriella turned to her friends. "What's going on? Is Taylor okay?" she questioned. Chad nodded.

"She's in the hospital. We found her a little after Zeke got to her, and she's okay. Our car broke down here, and we were trying to fix it when Zeke showed up." he told her. "Are you all right?"

Gabriella nodded. "It's not me I'm worried about." she responded darkly. "Guys, you need to get out of here."

"Even if we could, we're not going to leave without you." Sharpay said. "You're insane if you think we are."

Gabriella shook her head. "No, guys. You don't get it."

"Enlighten us." said Chad sarcastically. Sharpay smacked his arm angrily.

"Ignore him. But why can't we leave without you, Gabriella?" she questioned. Gabriella sighed.

"If he has me, he has no reason to be after you. You guys can go back to a somewhat normal life without him going after all of you, and get someone to find us and arrest him. If I go with you, he'll come and kill you all. I couldn't live with myself knowing I let him kill you all."Sharpay shook her head. "I appreciate that you care about us and all, Gabriella, but you are an idiot." she said. "We are not letting you get…I don't even want to know…by that sick bastard. We're in this together. We're not going to let you fall alone."

Gabriella gave a small smile. "I appreciate it, but guys, seriously. You need to get out of here. Don't worry about me."

Sharpay shook her head. "You're one of my best friends, but Gabriella, you're a real idiot." she said calmly. We don't care what this guy tries to do to us. He's messing with _you._"

"And we all know he's going to have a lot up his ass from Sharpay. Don't worry about us." Chad put in. "Sharpay is a master in all kinds of massive butt-kicking. She can blind him with her lovely unicorn fairy princess rainbow powers too."

"My _what_?" Sharpay whirled around. Chad flinched.

"See? Even I'm scared." he called out to her, as Sharpay advanced on him angrily. Gabriella started laughing as she watched Sharpay hitting Chad with an oversized pink purse. She turned away from her friends and walked towards the door. Laying her head against the wood, she heard the faint sound of voices from down the hall, over the sounds of her friend's squabbles.

"Guys, shut up!" she called over to them urgently, pressing her ear against the wood. Sharpay reluctantly stopped hitting Chad and joined Gabriella at the door.

"You'll be with your friends soon enough…or what's left of them." they heard Zeke say. Out of the corner of her eye, Gabriella saw the anger she had seen in Sharpay's eyes return, ten times more burning and ready to kill. They heard a slap and a stifled yell. "Get up." they heard Zeke say coldly. "Or you can lie there forever."

"C'mon, Kelsi." they heard Jason's voice urging his girlfriend. "Let's go."

"Get away from the door, or you'll all get shot." they heard Zeke say loudly. Gabriella backed away, dragging Sharpay with her, who clearly wanted to stay at the door to be ready to attack the person at the other side. The door opened, and three people entered, followed by Zeke.

"Have fun with your reunion," he said menacingly, turning towards the door again, after making sure they were all away from it. "It might be the last time you see each other. I'll be back for you soon, Gabriella."

He turned and left. They heard the sound of him locking them in. As soon as his footsteps had faded away, the two groups hurried to each other.

"Oh, my God…" Sharpay whispered, staring at Kelsi. "Are you okay?"

Jason shook his head. "She's really weak." he replied. "She collapsed on our way here."

Sharpay said something about exactly what she was going to do to that bastard, and turned away, scanning the messy apartment.

"Kelsi, sit down, because we really don't want to have you fainting on us or something." she said without turning around. "Is there any water around here?"

"Sink over there," Chad gestured to the kitchen nearby. Sharpay walked over to it, encountering a mess of half-rotten food with flies swarming around it, and a sink overflowing with dirty dishes. She turned the tap handle experimentally. A trickle of dirty brown water trickled out. Sharpay shut off the water and left the kitchen, keen to get out of the messy kitchen, and returned to her friends.

She saw Troy and Gabriella standing off to the side, away from the others. Jason was talking to Kelsi in a low voice, kneeling next to her. Chad seemed to be as awkward as she was, standing at the sidelines.

"Troy, I don't care. Forget about me. He'll only hurt you more if you try to be with me." they heard Gabriella saying.

"Gabi, please don't let this sick freak do this to you. This is what he wants. He wants you to have no one. Don't give him that. You'll always have me, no matter what." Troy replied. He bent down to kiss her, but she turned away. "Gabriella, please don't give yourself up. We can figure this out." he implored.

Gabriella shook her head. "I wish it were that simple." she whispered, so everyone heard what she was saying. "I wish we could just get through this together, like we always have."

"We will." Troy said, pulling her into a hug.

"I love you." Gabriella murmured into his chest.

"I love you, too." Troy replied. "I promise, we'll get through this. Together. All of us."

**Freakishly cheesy chapter end, but I really need to post this, because I haven't posted in forever, and I don't have time to write up more scary stuff to end the chapter with! The next chapter will be lots of horror and death and not-nice stuff, and like no romance at all (Except Jelsi. I make no promises with Jelsi.) or I can still have some if you want. But you have to review or you will never see that chapter! Because you need to tell me if you want romance or not! Please review and I promise I'll get another chapter up soon! (I'll have time this weekend, if I get reviews…it's my birthday weekend, so I can do whatever I want! Yay!)**


	18. Chapter 17

**Hello, people, I promised an update this weekend, and I know the last chapter was a load of cheesy s*** I needed to get out of my system. This one is going to have character death, gore, violence, and loads of swearing. I promise. And almost no romance (except Jelsi…cuz I'm watching HSM 3 and finding out Jelsi was completely killed…I mean, seriously! RYELSI????? Where the hell did that come from???), because I can't write romance anyway. Okay, shutting up. :P Please review!**

The group had been sitting around, for a long time, no one knew how long, just waiting for something to happen. Waiting for either the police or a monster in the form of Zeke Baylor to come and open the door and drag them away. Gabriella was beginning to think that she would welcome even death, if it meant an escape.

A large thump outside made them all look up. "Zeke." Gabriella muttered, confirming what the others already knew. A few seconds later, the door opened, and Zeke walked in, hauling a large duffel bag behind him.

"Chad, you've got a message from your girlfriend." he said hauntingly, not looking at any of them.

"What did you do to her?" Chad demanded, standing up and looking ready to start beating him up right then and there.

Zeke shrugged. "She wouldn't want me to be the one to tell you." he replied. "Take a look for yourself." He turned away, walking towards the door again.

Chad made a run for Zeke and jumped on him from behind. The two boys started wrestling, and Gabriella yelled, "Chad, stop! He has a gun!"

Chad made no indication that he had heard her. Troy hurried up to them and pulled Chad away. Zeke stood up, panting, sporting a darkening bruise on his cheek and a threatening expression.

"That was a mistake, Chad." he said menacingly. He pulled out his gun.

"No!" Sharpay screamed.

Gabriella hurriedly positioned herself in front of Chad. "Shoot him, shoot me first." she snapped. Troy grabbed her arm.

"Gabriella, no!" he yelled. Gabriella wrenched her arm away from him.

"Stop it, Troy. Don't pretend you know what I'm doing." she hissed. "If he kills me, at least it will get me away from this."

Troy tore his gaze away from Gabriella and looked at Zeke again. He was looking ready to tackle him again. Jason, who had noticed this, jumped up from Kelsi's side and held his friend back.

"No, man! He'll shoot you!" Jason said urgently. "Don't do it!"

Troy shook his head. "I don't care anymore." he whispered, trying to get away from his friend.

Zeke appeared to be watching the spectacle with great amusement. He turned away again and started for the door. "I'll be back." he called over his shoulder. The door closed. Jason let go of Troy and Gabriella stepped away from Chad.

"Gabriella." Troy slowly approached his girlfriend. She turned away. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"Troy, listen." she said quietly, glancing around to make sure no one could hear her. Jason was with Kelsi again, and Sharpay was looking at Chad's cuts and bruises from his fight with Zeke with concern. "We can't be together. I can't let him kill you because we're together."

Troy shook his head. "Gabriella, no matter what, I won't let him do anything." he replied. "Not to you or anyone."

"Guys…" a small voice spoke up. "What's that?"

Everyone turned to Kelsi, who was pointing to the duffel Zeke had left behind. There was a dark stain spreading over the material.

Gabriella slowly approached the bag, and knelt down to unzip it. She peered in and let out a noise halfway between a scream and a sob.

"What is it?" Troy asked, coming up behind her. He looked in. "No…" he whispered. He helped Gabriella stand up and gently walked her away from the bag.

"Guys, what's going on?" Chad asked warily. "What is it?"

Gabriella glanced over at him, her face a mask of tears. "You don't want to know." she said softly.

Chad walked over and looked in. He saw the bloody, lifeless face of his girlfriend staring back at him. "Oh, my god, no…" he muttered. He bent over and half-lifted her bloodstained body out of the bag. "No!" he yelled. He gently set her body down, staring into her lifeless eyes.

Sharpay slowly came up behind Chad and laid a hand on his back. "I'm so sorry." she said in a low voice, trying to hide her tears. Chad shook his head, not saying anything.

Gabriella slowly pulled herself away from Troy and approached the group. She knelt down beside her friend's body, trying to think of some way to console Chad, when she caught sight of a piece of paper in Taylor's hand. She gently pulled it out of her hand, trying not to rip it. It was a medical chart, with five words scrawled on it, in Taylor's writing.

_Don't let him get you. _

"How could that bastard do that to us?" Gabriella suddenly yelled. "How could he? I hate him!"

Troy slowly approached her, but she moved away from him. "Don't give me all this 'I'm going to take care of little Gabi' shit!" she snapped. "I don't need to have my battles fought for me. I am going to kill this f***ing bastard if it's the last thing I do, I swear to God! I hope he gets back here soon, because I'm going to kill him. I swear to god, I will."

"Gabi, no. Don't try to do anything. I don't want you getting hurt." Troy said quietly. Gabriella let out an insane laugh.

"Oh, you shouldn't worry about me getting hurt!" she yelled. "I've been as hurt as I could be, ever! I only have all of you left! I won't let him just force me to stand by and watch as he kills you one by one!" Her voice fell to a whisper. "I can't let him get you."

The door opened again. "Touching, Gabi, touching." said Zeke, leaning against the door frame, holding his gun up to stop them from making a run for freedom. "Come on. Are you ready to go with me?" He approached the group and took Gabriella's hand. She smacked it away.

"Stay away from me." she hissed. Zeke shrugged and grabbed her arm, jamming the gun into her back.

"Come." he ordered. He took the gun away from her back and called to the others, "Get back. Anyone makes a move towards the door, I'll shoot them." He walked Gabriella to the door. She was crying silently, staring straight ahead. "Don't be so sad, Gabriella." he whispered in her ear. "I can be a good lover. I can be better than you ever dreamed, if only you would let me."

Gabriella felt like vomiting, but had nothing left to barf up. She left the room with Zeke, watching him lock away her last hope, the last thing she had to hold onto, and lead her away.

**Yeah, again, not as good as I hoped, but I can seriously promise I will make the next chapter better. I have a perfectly good idea as to what's going into that one, and I think it will be sufficiently scary. Also, you should go read Pick Up The Phone, by mzdarkstar, cuz it's awesome. It's kinda like this story, only a Sharpay-centric (no Troypay though) and it has some different stuff, but it's really good. Please review, or I can never post the next chapter that's going to be better than this one! Also, RemyTheReaper is my beta reader and she's awesome too.**


	19. Chapter 18

**Hellooooooooooooooo, merry Christmas (it's Christmas day right now, idk if I can post today, internet's down, grrr), happy Hanukah, happy Kwanzaa, and happy whatever other holiday you people are celebrating! Woot! Sorry I kinda died…I had half this stupid chapter typed and ready to post, and then my dad's computer crashed, and I didn't save any of my shit, cuz I thought there was document recovery. But there wasn't, so I have to write this over again. :P I'm not happy…only what I did have sucked…only I think all my stuff sucks…so you should boost my morale (and give me a late Christmas/Hanukah present) by reviewing! Please review and I swear I'll update again and stop the long, rambling A/Ns!**

_RECAP!_

_She left the room with Zeke, watching him lock away her last hope, the last thing she had to hold onto, and lead her away. _

* * *

"How could he do this?" Sharpay said suddenly.

The night was getting lighter. The group was scattered around the apartment, either trying to forget where they were by daydreaming or trying to sleep, or looking around the apartment, searching for the thousandth time for something that would get them out of there, to no avail.

A few of her friends glanced over, not really caring if another one of them was going to go on an "I hate Zeke" rant. They were almost all at the point that they didn't care about anything anymore.

"I don't care what I have to do. I'm getting out of here just to get him for this." Sharpay continued.

This did nothing to get the attention of any of the boys, but it made Kelsi glance up. "What?" Sharpay questioned, noticing her friend's sudden movement.

"I just thought of something." Kelsi said softly. "Maybe we haven't lost hope yet." She looked up to the cracked ceiling. "Has anyone looked around here?"

Everyone shook their heads. Kelsi sighed. "This isn't the only room here, is it?" she asked.

Sharpay shook her head. "No, I think there's another room over there." she gestured to a door at the other side of their prison.

Kelsi made her way across the room to the door, opening it to a dark hole beyond. "Come on." she said quietly. Jason and Sharpay joined her, followed by Troy and Chad. Kelsi entered the dark room, feeling around for a light source. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness enough to give her a general idea of what was around her.

"I think this is Zeke's hideout." Kelsi suddenly realized. Her hand found a plastic cord, plugged into the wall, and attached to a lamp. She switched it on, illuminating a small room, holding only a desk covered in paper.

"Someone, come in here." she called to her friends. Jason came in after her. Sharpay tried to follow, but realized it was too crowded. Kelsi started rifling through the papers on the desk, looking over several of Zeke's freaky, insane fantasies about Gabriella, and finding something more serious.

"Jason," she called him over. He turned and made the half-step needed to get closer to her, coming up and putting his arms around her waist. "Look." Kelsi held up a printout of an email, talking about ordering something.

"It's just an email. What does it matter?" Jason questioned, confused. "Is there anything to help us get out of here?"

"There better be." Kelsi responded darkly. Her sharp eyes caught sight of a dark shape, lying on the ground, half out of sight. She broke away from Jason and picked it up. It was a gun, loaded, judging by its weight. She turned back to Jason. "Let's get out of here."

The couple left the small room and returned to their friends.

"Guys, I've got some bad news." Kelsi called out. Everyone gathered around her. "We need to get out of here."

"We already knew that, Kels." said Chad gently.

"No, we really need to!" Kelsi said desperately. "I'm serious, guys."

"What happened, Kelsi?" Sharpay asked. "And where the hell did you get a gun?" she added, noticing the gun in her friend's hand.

"Zeke had some stuff hidden here." she replied, holding the gun out. "Someone take it." Troy reached out and relieved Kelsi of her burden. "I also found this." she handed the email printout to Sharpay.

"Kels, I can't read this. It's too dark." Sharpay said. Kelsi exasperatedly walked over to the room where Zeke had had everything hidden, and aimed the lamp so it was lighting up about half the apartment. "Thank you." said Sharpay. She started skimming the printouts. "Shit." she muttered. "What?" Chad and Troy both asked.

Sharpay glanced up. "Listen." she said. "'You need to plant it today - it is completely vital that you do not slack on this. If they escape again, I remain skeptical that I can catch them all. This will get rid of them all, if you don't screw it up. Plant it and get away from there. I'll be happy to let Gabriella know about her friends deaths myself, if you can manage to get it ready and get yourself away. I can't risk getting you blown up along with them. Zeke'" Sharpay lowered the paper and stared around at her friends. "Do you guys know what this means?" she questioned.

"What?" Jason looked at her, perplexed. "I don't get it."

Sharpay sighed exasperatedly. "It means, Jason," she said, with the air of someone trying to teach a stubborn child unwilling to learn, who was quickly losing patience, "that Zeke is going to blow up the building."

"When is he coming to get us out?" Jason asked. Sharpay didn't answer. Slowly, Jason's confused look was replaced by one of comprehension, then horror. "Oh, my god…" he muttered. "We're going to die."

"No one's going to die. Not now." Troy said suddenly. He held up the gun. "We're getting out of here."

* * *

Gabriella was in the back of the van again. "I hate you." she muttered, inaudible to her captor.

She had been tied up and thrown in the back of the van, where she had been bouncing around for the last 15 minutes. She felt it slowing to a stop.

"Come on, Gabriella." Zeke said, opening the door. He hauled her out of the van and wrapped a blindfold around her eyes. "Not that I don't trust you, Gabriella." he purred. "I just like surprises so much better."

Gabriella felt the gag reflex again as he spoke to her. She felt herself being led into a building, down a hall, and into a room. Zeke ripped off the blindfold.

She found herself staring at a white room with no furniture but a bed. "I'm sorry it has such bad decorations." Zeke said. "But I can make it better for you." He reached out and stroked the side of her face. Gabriella turned away, wanting to escape from this, wanting to run, wanting to find Troy and have his arms around her, to have him protect her from this.

"Don't be scared, Gabriella. No one has to know that you love me." Zeke said softly. Then, without warning, Gabriella found him mashing his mouth against hers. She started struggling as hard as she could trying to get as far away from this monster as she could, trying to pull away, but he forcibly held her to him. She finally was able to get him away from her.

"No…" she whispered. She had never wanted this. She could see where this was going to lead. "Please…" Tears started to form in her eyes.

"Don't be sad." Zeke said softly, reaching out and brushing her tears away. The gesture made her think of Troy, and miss him a hundred times more.

"Leave me alone!" she suddenly screamed. Zeke smacked her across the face. Gabriella crumpled at his feet, clutching her wounded cheek.

"Don't make me have any reason to get angry with you." he said. "It would be bad for your friends." He left the room.

Gabriella huddled into a ball on the floor, crying silently. She felt something digging into her stomach, and reached into her sweatshirt pocket to find a cell phone, with a pink rhinestoned unicorn on it. Sharpay.

Gabriella thought back, to when she had seen her friends the last time, Sharpay slipping something into her pocket. She slowly opened it, to find a cracked screen and a few missing buttons.

_It was both of our last hopes, and I let it die. _she thought. _And now everything that could have gotten me through this is gone. _She let the phone fall beside her, and started to cry again. It was over.

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH I am sooooooooooo sorry about not updating!!!!! My laptop lost internet and other problems and stuff! Please don't kill me!**

**Ummmm, yeah, I was just kind of spazzing, and I spent like, two hours on this, and I think it came out okay, so please review! Or no updates and Gabriella will get raped and the building will blow up with everyone in it! Or maybe it won't…you have to read to find out…and to read you have to review! Please review!**

**Also, I received one interesting review from yiruma4life-7 (I would have just sent you a PM, but FF wouldn't let me. Idk why. Also, thank you to everyone that reviewed last chapter!) asking if I liked HSM, because I just kind of kill everyone in it. Lol, I do like HSM, I'm just a failure at writing stories that aren't horror stories in which everyone dies, and it was easy to with HSM. IDK why. Yeah. Life. Please review! And also, RemyTheReaper is my beta reader, and you should go read Pick Up The Phone by mzdarkstar, cuz it's awesome. Review!**


	20. Chapter 19

**Wow, like, 10 reviews in two days…thanks guys! I'm going to thank you for reviewing (and escape from my mother's torturous Hanukah party) by writing another chapter! It's vacation, I've got a week to do nothing but write. And be a social outcast. And try to hang out with friends, and have a marathon of watching random movies with my beta reader. Woot. Here's the next chapter! Oh yes, and this was beta read by RemyTheReaper who is awesome. :P**

_RECAP!_

"_When is he coming to get us out?" Jason asked. Sharpay didn't answer. Slowly, Jason's confused look was replaced by one of comprehension, then horror. "Oh, my god…" he muttered. "We're going to die."_

"_No one's going to die. Not now." Troy said suddenly. He held up the gun. "We're getting out of here."_

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Troy…" Sharpay started. "Put the gun down."

"No. Don't look at me like that. I haven't gone insane. I know what I'm doing." Troy responded. He aimed at the door, a few feet above the doorknob, and fired, blowing away the lock that Zeke had put on as a precaution. He walked over and opened the door by punching a hand through the hole he had made and unlocking the door from the outside. "Come on." he called, exiting the prison he had gotten them out of.

"Come on." Sharpay walked over to the door, beckoning her friends. Chad followed. Jason had to help Kelsi over; she was feeling worse now.

"You okay?" he asked her as the group made their way down the hallway they had all been dragged down at some point.

Kelsi nodded. She was staring ahead, past her friends. Chad kept glancing back to the place they had left, and Kelsi knew he didn't want to leave Taylor's body behind, to be destroyed. She closed her eyes, trying to block it out.

"We couldn't do anything for her. She's in a better place now." Kelsi heard Sharpay saying, and knew the blond had picked up on Chad's unhappiness as well. She opened her eyes to see Sharpay laying a comforting hand on Chad's shoulder.

"Come on." Troy called from the front. Kelsi was seeing a change in him - he was no longer the caring, funny, sweet guy she had once known. It seemed like nothing mattered to him anymore. He still clutched the gun he had used to get them out in his hand. Kelsi was ashamed of herself to think she was almost afraid of one of her best friends. But the way he was looking around…

_No. I won't let myself think that._ Kelsi told herself firmly. _It's going to be fine. We're out of there, and we're going to be okay, and then we're going to find Zeke, and it's all going to work out. It has to._

The group had soon reached the nearest exit, a side door that Troy and Chad had to break open. The group left, scanning the lot for some way to get away from there. Chad's truck was still parked in the vacant lot, near a pool of blood, which they all knew was from Taylor. "Come on. Let's go." said Chad flatly, not wanting to have to remember this any more than he was forced to.

They were ready to leave when Jason suddenly said, "Where's Kels?"

Sharpay and Jason both got out, and looked around for their friend. Jason had noticed her falling behind, but hadn't thought anything of it. He had left her, and he hated himself for it.

"She's got to be out here somewhere." Sharpay said, scanning the lot. Jason caught sight of a huddled mass several yards away.

"Over there." he pointed. Sharpay nodded, catching sight of her friend. "I'll get her. Go back to the car. We need to get out of here, remember?"Sharpay bowed her head and turned back to Chad's car. "Hurry." she said softly. Jason jogged over to where his girlfriend lay, unconscious. He gently gathered her up in his arms and carried her limp body over to the car. "Jason…" Kelsi was stirring as Jason carefully laid her down in the backseat, next to Sharpay.

"Shhh, it's fine, Kelsi." Jason murmured, somehow getting in the backseat as well and still having Kelsi lying there, with her head on his lap. "We're going to get you somewhere where they can take care of you. It's going to be fine."

"Don't leave me…any of you…" Kelsi muttered. "Don't let him get you." She closed her eyes. Her breathing steadied as she fell into sleep.

"Is she okay?" Chad asked, tearing his eyes off the road for a minute to glance back at Kelsi.

"Yeah, she'll be okay. Let's just to my place." Sharpay spoke up. "No one's there, and I know how we can get in without being seen."

Chad nodded agreement, and Jason made a noise of assent as well. "Troy? That okay?" Chad questioned, turning to his friend.

Troy had been staring ahead, ignoring everything around him. "Yeah, fine." he said, in a way that confirmed he had not been paying attention to a word that his friends had been saying.

Chad's car soon pulled up in front of the Evan's mansion. It was different - everything had gone dark and dismal, with no one left to care for it. Sharpay sighed, and clambered out of the car, followed by her friends.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gabriella heard the door opening and refused to look up. She knew who it was.

"Hello, Gabriella." said Zeke. He sounded oddly happy. Gabriella didn't want to know why.

"Leave me alone. Why are you doing this to me?" Gabriella snapped.

"Some will do anything for love. I am truly sorry it had to come to this, Gabriella." said Zeke calmly.

"You don't love me. You don't care. If you loved me, you'd let me go." she replied.

"But if I let you go now, what would you have to turn to?" Zeke questioned. Gabriella looked up slightly to see Zeke checking his phone for something. Whatever he had seen had pleased him, because he smiled and said, "Come on, Gabriella. I'll show you what you have to turn to."

He blindfolded her again and tied her up, and started dragging her out again, from one prison to another. There was no escape.

**This wasn't the greatest chapter ever, just a boring filler, but the next one's going to be good (I hope.) But you need to review to read that!!!!!! Also (this is going to be long…) yiruma4life-7 had another question - why do I only care about Jelsi? Actually, I do care about other pairings, just I love Jelsi for several reasons. One is because I'm kind of like Kelsi (the shy quiet girl that no one really notices) and I love Jason, he's just a cute idiot, only he's really sweet. And I think they're perfect for each other. For another, Jelsi is amazingly cute. And also, I have this thing where every pairing I care about (except one) doesn't work out. Either the people all go out with someone else, or one of the people die. (Yes, I'm serious. Have you ever read A Great and Terrible Beauty? I wanted Kartik and Gemma to be together, but nooooooo, Kartik had to turn into a tree. Stuff like that.) And Jelsi didn't happen in HSM3, so of course the ONE PAIRING I LIKED in HSM didn't work out. Just like everything else. Depression. But Jelsi is awesome, and if someone feels like writing an awesome fluffy Jelsi oneshot…or a lot of oneshots…I would love them forever. Sorry about making that so long. You're probably ready to shoot me for that. Please r&r and keep the questions coming! (I'll try to keep responses shorter…) And HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAY 2009!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**


	21. Chapter 20

**Hellooooo, I started this on, like, the last day of vacation, and then I thought I lost it and just recovered it this morning, and I had to write the rest of it. I've been meaning to post this forever. And I wanted to get out of helping my mother prep for her yearly old-person party…so I wrote this…so it kinda came out weird…or the first part did anyway. I wrote the rest of it this morning. Life. :P please review!**

_RECAP!_

_Chad's car soon pulled up in front of the Evan's mansion. It was different - everything had gone dark and dismal, with no one left to care for it. Sharpay sighed, and clambered out of the car, followed by her friends._

-------------------------------------------------------------

Once Kelsi had been laid down in one of the guest rooms and Jason had been dragged away from her, the small group met in Sharpay's living room.

"Should we even be here?" Sharpay questioned. "I mean, Zeke probably figured we'd head back to someone's house. Maybe he knows we're here and he's going to come take us all away."

"He wouldn't. He can't fight us all. Even he's not that stupid." Chad responded.

"Really?" said Jason.

Sharpay shook her head. "I don't know. He stalked and kidnapped one of his best friend's girlfriends, killed three of his other friends and planned to kill us all. I don't think he'd care how many of us there were."

"Well…" Jason began. He seemed to be trying to think of a way to counter this. "That's not nice." he stated lamely.

Sharpay shrugged. "That's what he is, Jason. Not nice." she replied. "We should probably get to someone's house, someone whose parents aren't home and hopefully who Zeke wouldn't expect." She glanced around. "Chad, let's go to your house."

Chad looked up. "Why me?" he asked blankly.

"Because your parents wouldn't care if you set off a bomb in your room, and Zeke doesn't know where you live." Sharpay said tersely, standing up. "I'll go get Kelsi. Stay, Jason."

"How do you know that?" Chad questioned.

"You constantly have wild parties and used to have a different cheerleader every day of the week in your room before you started dating Taylor." Sharpay said, turning away.

"No, about…Zeke." Chad said softly.

"He mentioned it before all of this. He said you always met at Troy's house, and he didn't even know where any of his other best friends on the team lived." Sharpay rattled off. "Don't ask me how I remember that." She walked out of the room to go get Kelsi.

Chad turned to Troy. "Troy." he said loudly, snapping Troy out of the half-coma he appeared to have slipped into. "Are you okay?"

Troy shook his head. "No, man. You don't get it." he replied. "I can't do anything to stop this. I can't protect her from this bastard. I failed her."

"Troy, how do you think I feel about Taylor getting killed?" Chad yelled. "Or Jason feels about Kelsi getting kidnapped? You don't have to shut us out, man. We're here to help."

Troy opened his mouth, about to say something again, but Sharpay burst in again, interrupting him. "Kelsi's gone."

Five minutes later, the group had piled into Chad's truck again. "Where are we even going?" Sharpay questioned. "We have no idea where he's taking her."

Sharpay shook her head. "We do. Who here has an up-to-date cell phone?"

Jason passed her a black Sidekick. "Here. It's Kelsi's." he said.

Sharpay nodded her thanks, and started madly typing. A few minutes later, she looked up, triumphant, and said, "We're looking for a black van, license plate J3O47B, headed out of town, toward the woods."

Chad turned in the direction she had said and asked, "How the hell do you know that?"

Sharpay waved the cell phone around. "Having security cameras isn't always a bad thing, especially when you know how to access data from them." she said. "I hacked onto the security base for the house from the phone."

"Did you see Zeke taking her?" Jason asked. Sharpay shook her head.

"The asshole found a blind spot and got her out there. I got a one-second shot of him dragging her to the car, though. Not much to bank on." Sharpay said angrily. "I hate him."

Chad glanced over at her. "Calm down, Sharpay." he said. "Look, there's the f***er's car. I think I can tell where it's headed."

"Where?" Sharpay questioned sharply.

"Know the forest on the outskirts of town?" The group nodded. "I think he found something there to hide us in."

Sharpay muttered something about "leaving it to that bastard to come up with something like that". Jason fell silent and stared out the window, hoping they could get there soon enough to save Kelsi and Gabriella from this monster. Troy stared ahead, trying to silently battle the web of secrets that was pulling them all in, ready to kill the person who had done this to his girlfriend.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gabriella had been walking around her 'room', if you could call it that, for a long time. She had tried to get Sharpay's phone to work, to no avail. She had been forced to accept that it was broken, her one last chance of getting out of there.

She heard footsteps and a muffled voice outside, and looked up, guessing her captor was going to come back and start professing his love for her again. If he even tries to touch me, I will barf, she thought. Please let me get out of this. Please let me get away from him.

She looked up to see Zeke standing there. She must have not heard him come in.

"Gabriella, I've got something to show you." he said. Gabriella glanced around, looking for whatever thing he 'wanted to show her', but saw nothing.

"Oh, it's not here." said Zeke, smiling. He grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room. "Come on, Gabriella. I've got somewhere special for us to go."

He hauled her out to his truck again, threw her unceremoniously into the back seat, and started taking Gabriella on another ride full of pain, uncertainty, and fear.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"See him?" Sharpay whispered. "No, guys, get down, he's leaving!"

Sharpay was crouched behind some bushes not too far from Zeke's hiding place. Jason, Troy and Chad had been snooping around, trying to find the easiest way to get in.

"Here!" Chad called a few minutes later. He stood beneath a large glass window. "We can get in here."

"Should we break it?" Jason asked.

Sharpay shook her head. "No, I think I know exactly what fucker's room this goes to. He would have left it unlocked." She approached the window, reached up, and slid it open. "Easy." she muttered.

Chad boosted her up, and she scrambled in. "Okay, should I go and let you guys in the front?" she called out. "I think I can find it easy."

Chad shook his head. "No, we can get in from here. You shouldn't be wandering around this freak's house on your own."

"Fine!" Sharpay called. "I think I could handle him, though."

"It's not you I'm worried about." Chad replied darkly. He helped his friends in, then climbed in, finding himself in a well-furnished room with a huge load of awesome appliances, super-expensive decorations, and a desk much like the one Kelsi had found at the abandoned apartment building.

Troy walked over to the desk and started sifting through the papers. He held up something bulky and metal. "Here." he said, holding out another gun.

Everyone stared at him. "What do we need that for?" asked Jason.

"To make sure we're not the ones to die if he shows up." Troy responded.

Sharpay took it wordlessly. "Let's go." she muttered.

The small group advanced into a long hallway. "Where would Kelsi and Gabriella be?" Sharpay mused. "Should we all just look in some random room?" She carefully opened the first door, looking into an empty room. "Nothing." she called out. "Chad, check over there. Jason, there, Troy, there." she indicated several doors. She opened another door that appeared to be a storage room.

"Guys!" Chad called them over. "You think they might be down here?" He was pointing down into a dark stairwell, leading to the basement.

Sharpay came over and nodded. "Yeah, I think they're down here. Come on." she said, leading her friends down into the dark room.

Sharpay groped around for a light switch once she had gotten into the basement, finally finding one hanging from the ceiling. She pulled it, initially blinding her friends from the sudden light blast.

They started looking around the minute their eyes had adjusted to the light. "Kelsi?" Jason called. "Gabriella?"

"Kelsi!" Sharpay yelled urgently. "Gabriella!" She heard a muffled yell coming from the back of the basement. She hurried toward the noise.

"Kelsi!" she cried, hurrying to her friend, who was bound and gagged, lying by the wall. Jason hurried over to her as well. "Guys! Get over here!" Sharpay yelled over her shoulder.

Troy and Chad were behind her in a matter of seconds. Chad pulled out a pocketknife and cut the ropes holding Kelsi hostage, freeing her. Kelsi untied her gag with trembling hands.

"You're here…" she whispered. "Is this some kind of dream?"

Sharpay shook her head. "Don't we all wish." she muttered. "Kelsi, what happened? Where's Gabriella?"

Kelsi shook her head. "I don't know. I think he's holding her somewhere else. He did all of this for her, remember? He wouldn't have her down here."

"Where is she?" Troy questioned.

"I don't know." Kelsi whispered, shaking her head vigorously. "I think she's upstairs somewhere, if he's holding her here."

Troy had disappeared up the stairs before anyone could stop him. Chad started after him, but Sharpay held him back. "Let him go." she said softly. "He might find her, and that's what we're here for, isn't it?"

Chad sighed and stared up at the door Troy had left through. "Let's get Kelsi out of here." he said. "Come on. I'll help Troy find Gabriella."

"Be careful." Sharpay said quietly. "I don't want you to get hurt."

Chad nodded once and disappeared after his friend.

"Okay, Kelsi, come on." said Sharpay, taking her friend's hand. "Let's go." She started to lead her friends out of the basement prison.

------------------------------------------------------------

Gabriella had been getting bumped around the back of the van for about 20 minutes when it finally halted. The door opened and she saw Zeke standing there. He unceremoniously dragged her out.

Gabriella glanced around frantically, praying that someone would come and get her out of this, but the lot they stood in was deserted. "What the hell are we doing here?" she asked. Looking around again, she saw the apartment where her friends were. "What the hell?"

she asked again. "What are you going to do with them?"

"What I've done can't be stopped. Not anymore." Zeke smirked, leading her to a nondescript point far away from both the van and the building, and glanced at his watch.

"Again, what the hell are we doing here?" Gabriella questioned. "What evil little plot to destroy my world have you come up with now?"

"You already have your world. And I have mine. And neither one is going anywhere." Zeke said chillingly.

"I think I'd die if you be the only thing I had to live for." Gabriella spat.

"Oh, you won't die. I can promise you that." Zeke replied cheerfully. Just wait, Gabriella."

Gabriella stared ahead and tried to ignore him, while wanting to turn around, punch him, and make him tell her what he was planning with her friends so she could stop it.

"Look over there, Gabriella." said Zeke, pointing to the apartment.

"Yeah, I know what's there! What the hell are you making me wait for?" Gabriella yelled.

"That." said Zeke, pointing to the building again.

Gabriella turned and watched her friend's prison blow up. The only thing she saw was her life shattering in her hands.

**Ugh, bad ending, but I felt like ending it there cuz I need to go get ready for school now…:P second 2-hour delay in a row! I'm not complaining though…life. Please reivew! Oh yeah, and RemyTheReaper is my beta reader and she's awesome, so yeah. And she beta read this, as you probably guessed. So yeah. Life. Please review even if you hated it!**


	22. Chapter 21

**So, yeah,, I was bored and fekt like updating because I got so many nice reivews! Thank you! And wowz, thank you for the over 10,000 hits! I just felt like updating again…and again, thank you everyone for reviews! You all get virtual cookies! Please review again! :P And RemyTheReaper is my beta reader and she's awesome.**

_RECAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!_

"Be careful." Sharpay said quietly. "I don't want you to get hurt."

_Chad nodded once and disappeared after his friend._

_"Okay, Kelsi, come on." said Sharpay, taking her friend's hand. "Let's go." She started to lead her friends out of the basement prison._

* * *

"Chad? Troy? Come on, get Gabi and let's get out before the f***er gets back." Sharpay yelled.

"She's not here." Chad called back. "Come here." He stuck his head out from one of the rooms leading off the hall.

The small group approached a white-walled, empty room with only a bed and a light fixture. Sharpay slipped in and caught sight of a small, glittering rhinestoned object on the floor. Kneeling down, she picked it up.

"No…" she whispered. She held up her Sidekick. It had been cracked and several of the rhinestones from the unicorn had fallen off. She opened it and pressed several buttons.

"Damnit!" she suddenly yelled. "She was here. And that bastard destroyed my phone."  
The rest of the group stared at her.

"I gave her my phone when she was with us, so she could call the police. He must have smashed it up somehow." Sharpay snapped. "How could he?"

Chad slowly walked up to her. "Shar, it's…just a phone." he said hesitantly.

"Oh, that's not what I'm pissed about." she replied. "Let's get out of here."

Troy shook his head. "No. I'm staying."

"Troy, do you want to get killed or something?" Cad asked incredulously. "We can't stay

here. We don't know when Zeke's going to be back and I don't want us all to get captured again. We've got to get Kelsi out anyway. Come back here later, or get the police or something. You can't stay here now."

Troy shook his head. "I won't leave Gabriella when there's a chance that I can save her now."

"Oh, you won't be leaving." said a new voice. "You won't be going anywhere. But you can forget about saving anyone."

Zeke stood in the doorway, smirking and holding Gabriella's arm so that she couldn't escape.

* * *

_Recap!  
_

_"Yeah, I know what's there! What the hell are you making me wait for?" Gabriella yelled.  
_

_"That." said Zeke, pointing to the building again.  
_

_Gabriella turned and watched her friend's prison blow up. The only thing she saw was her life shattering in her hands. _

* * *

Gabriella found herself torn between fear and anger that he had gotten her friends again, and relief and happiness that they hadn't been killed.

"How did you get out of there?" she asked, praying someone would answer, proving that this wasn't a dream, while struggling against her captor's clutches.

"We found a way. Let us go." said Troy.

"But why should I? I have what I want, and I can get rid of what I don't want easily enough." he replied calmly. "What's stopping me?"

Gabriella turned to him, tears glinting in her eyes. "Please. Don't do this." she begged.

"Why not, Gabriella? It's to make sure nothing gets in the way of our love." Zeke replied, giving her a chilling smile. He let go of her arm. "I'll be back for you." he turned and left, locking them all in.

The second he had disappeared, Gabriella launched herself into Troy's arms. "Oh, thank God you guys are okay." she murmured. "I thought you were all gone…Oh, my god, I'm sorry that I left you…"

"It's not your fault. None of this is." Troy whispered to her.

"I'm still sorry." she said softly, pressing her face into his chest.

"Don't be." Troy said, hugging her tightly. "I promise I'll never leave you again."

"Um, guys?" Sharpay said loudly. "Hate to break up your little romance, but even though you guys are together now, we're still trapped with a psycho bent on killing us and doing god doesn't want to know what with Gabriella. We need to get out of here."

"How?" Jason asked. "Cause no one has a phone, and we're all kinda stuck in this one room."

"Wait until he comes back for me, then run like your life depends on it. It does." Gabriella said suddenly. "If he still has me, then he won't think so much about you escaping. Then get to the police and get them to come stop him."

Troy opened his mouth to object, but Gabriella interrupted him. "I know what could happen. I don't care, Troy. I couldn't live with myself if I knew I didn't give you all a chance to get away."

Troy shook his head. "I promised you I wouldn't leave you again. I won't. I won't ever let him touch you again. I'm not leaving you to him."

Gabriella shook her head. "There's no other way." she said softly. "Don't worry about me. It's not like you're really leaving me. You'll come back. I know you will."

"I don't like it." said Sharpay grimly. Gabriella shrugged.

"Neither do I, but we don't really have a choice. I won't let this bastard hurt you when I could have done something about it."

"What if we don't get away?" Kelsi spoke up. "What if we can't?"

Gabriella shook her head. "That's something we won't think about."

**So yeah, that was a kinda lame ending, but it's going to get better. And also, because I'm running low on ideas (don't worry, I won't put this on hiatus or anything, I know where I'm going with this, I just don't know how to get there), I need you people to give me some ideas! Just tell me what you want to see, what you think should happen, anything. And please review! :P Also, sorry about the weird spacing, the site has been completely hating me...it took me 15 minutes and reuploading the document about 4 times to get it to look normal! anyone else having problems with that, or does the site just REALLY HATE ME?**


	23. Chapter 22

**Hi, people, I was just really bored and I noticed I hadn't updated in forever…sorry! This chapters probably going to suck, but oh well. Thank you for the reviews on last chapter, and RemyTheReaper beta read this…she's awesome too. Yeah, whatever, life.**

_RECAP!_

"_What if we don't get away?" Kelsi spoke up. "What if we can't?"_

_Gabriella shook her head. "That's something we won't think about."_

* * *

The group had huddled together in a corner of the small room, waiting. They heard footsteps penetrating the silence, and looked around at each other, seeming to gather strength from knowing that their friends were with them.

Troy had been having a silent argument with Gabriella. He still didn't want to leave her.

"You'll be back. I trust you. You won't be leaving me." Gabriella said, as the footsteps grew closer. "You'll be killing us both if you don't!" she whispered desperately.

Something inside Troy seemed to break, and he nodded. "I won't leave you," he said, barely audible, as Zeke's voice came through the other side of the door.

"Stand back, or you'll get shot." he called out. Everyone backed up, ready to run.

The door opened, and Gabriella stepped forward, slowly and deliberately. "Please." she said. "Let them go, I'll do what you want."

"I would, Gabriella, but it's easier to make sure you will with some sort of guarantee until you've finally broken." Zeke responded carelessly. "When I don't question your love for me, I'll let the ones who are still alive go."

"You'll let them go either way." Gabriella snapped defiantly. Zeke slapped her.

Troy and Chad stepped up behind Gabriella. Troy pushed Gabriella behind him, away from their captor, and punched him in the face. Zeke fell back, and the two girls and Jason took the opportunity to get out of the room. Troy punched him in the stomach, and followed his friends, along with Chad, as Zeke fell over.

"Gabriella! Come on!" Troy yelled. "You can get away now!"

He turned to see Zeke standing up and getting a grip on Gabriella's hair. She had her eyes closed, probably hiding tears. Zeke reached into his pocket and pulled something out.

A shot fired, piercing the air and probably killing some poor squirrel in the trees around them as they got out of the house and started towards the car. Another shot sounded, and they turned to see Zeke running after them. Gabriella had probably been left in the house, locked in her prison once again.

A third shot sounded, mingling with a scream. Kelsi collapsed, clutching her shoulder. Jason stopped and bent down next to her, trying to pick her up without hurting her any more.

"Jason…" she whispered, her face contorted in pain. "Don't try…to bring me…get out…"

"Kelsi, I'm not leaving you!" Jason said emphatically.

"Go…I know…you'll be back…" Kelsi said softly. She closed her eyes and fell silent for a minute. "Go." she whispered again.

Jason could see Zeke approaching them. He stood up.

"I'll be back, Kelsi. I promise." he said quietly, and turned away, hating himself for leaving her more every step he took away from her.

* * *

She watched her friends escape, leaving her. She didn't blame them. She knew they would be back. She knew they wouldn't leave her and Gabriella…

The next thing she knew, she was lying on a bed, and Gabriella was bending over her. She was in a white room, with no decorations. _Is this a hospital? _she wondered. _But then, where are the machines? Where are the nurses? Where are my friends? Where's Jason?_

"Gabriella…" she started. Gabriella laid a hand over her mouth, silencing her.

"Don't talk." she said. "It's going to be okay, Kelsi. You got shot in the arm by the motherfucking bastard, and he dragged you back here. Everyone else got away. You're doing pretty well physically, considering the fact that I'm your only doctor and you've lost a lot of blood. I think you'll be fine as long as they hurry up and get the police here."

"If not?" Kelsi whispered.

Gabriella shook her head. "They have to." she said. "We have to get out of this, Kelsi. We will. We all will." She fell silent, and didn't say anything else. Kelsi both loved and hated the silence, because it gave her time to think, but told her nothing and couldn't distract her from the excruciating pain in her arm, that was finding its way all around her body.

Gabriella glanced up sharply at the sound of footsteps approaching. She put down whatever she had been holding and walked up to the door.

It opened to Zeke's smirking face peeking in. "Oh, look, I must have aimed hastily with dear Kelsi." he said calmly. "Don't worry, Gabriella, you won't have to be taking care of her for much longer."

"Shut up. Don't even think that." Gabriella snapped. "I hate you."

Zeke smiled chillingly. "You won't be saying that soon, Gabriella." he said. "Come on. We'll leave Kelsi. It's not like she can run away, is it?" He grabbed Gabriella, who immediately started to struggle. Zeke hauled her away and out the door.

"Goodbye, Kelsi." he said. "I'm sorry it had to end like this."

Kelsi shook her head. "No…you're not." she said softly.

Zeke shrugged. "I know, but courtesy never hurts, does it, even if it has completely nothing behind it?"

Kelsi made a face, showing pain, anger and hatred in her eyes. Zeke smiled at her and walked out with Gabriella, leaving Kelsi, unknowing of the evil he was displaying, uncaring.

As soon as he was gone, Kelsi tried to stand up, but found herself swaying and falling back down. _I hate this. _she thought, trying to ignore the renewed pain rush to her arm. _I have to get out of here._

* * *

Gabriella found herself being dragged down a hall, to a room at the end. She had no idea where he was taking her.

A door opened to a large room, covered in papers, books, random things, and mess in general. "Where the hell is this?" Gabriella wondered out loud.

"Just my little hiding place." said Zeke, smiling. "Like it?"

Gabriella made a face. "Why the hell did you bring me here? Just let me get back to Kelsi. Just let her go. Let us both go. Please! You could end up killing her!"

Zeke shrugged. "Let that be a lesson and an example." he said. "It's what will keep happening if you stay defiant. Just give in to the fact that we are meant to be, Gabriella. You and I both know it."

Gabriella started lashing out again, but he overpowered her quickly. "Don't do that again, Gabriella!" he snapped. "Do you want someone else to join Kelsi and that gay twin?"

"I hate you." Gabriella whispered. "Don't even say a word about Ryan or Kelsi or Martha. Never again."

Zeke's answer was to slam the door shut and trap them both inside. "I think you'll find, Gabriella," he whispered in her ear, "that I can do whatever I want, with whoever I want, now. Who's to stop me?"

**Lame ending, I know. Oh well. I felt bad about not updating in a week. But I'm getting my new Ipod soon, yay! (only I had to pay for it…and the old one broke…which was not yay.) Please review or everyone will die and Zeke will do not-nice things to Gabriella, and it would be sad. And everyone would just be like, this really sucks, only we're dead and there's nothing we can do about it. Yeah. Just please review!**


	24. Chapter 23

**Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, I am soooooooooooo sorry for not updating in so long…this chapter hasn't been beta read (yet), when it is, it's going to be by RemyTheReaper, but she's not here this weekend and IDK if she has access to a computer. If I end up making any major changes, I'll tell you in the next chapter. **

_RECAP!_

_Zeke's answer was to slam the door shut and trap them both inside. _

_"I think you'll find, Gabriella," he whispered in her ear, "that I can do whatever I want, with whoever I want, now. Who's to stop me?"_

* * *

"But why?" Gabriella whispered, trying to keep her voice steady as she began to realize what was probably going to happen.

"Why? Because, Gabriella, I was sick and tired of always being forgotten, always being overshadowed by those other, better basketball players. I was sick of always getting only the leftovers when they took anything good. I wanted to be able to have something that I wanted for once, something I deserved. I knew I wanted you from the moment I met you. And yet, no matter what I did, I was always overshadowed by the others. Of course, you, the beautiful new girl, was immediately claimed by Troy. The only girl I ever wanted was taken by the little rich kid. He had everything effortlessly, Gabriella, and he didn't deserve it. He didn't deserve you. I did.

"It wasn't hard to do this, Gabriella. I was driven. I knew what I wanted. I wanted you. And I knew I would go to any cost to have you. And now I do. I have what I have been fighting for, for so long. After this, I can deal with Bolton and the others."

"How could you do this?" Gabriella said faintly. She knew it now. She knew she wasn't getting out.

"It was easy, Gabriella. You all made it too easy. It wasn't a hard charade to lead. All I had to do was use Sharpay and make you all think you liked her, not you. That and watching you with Bolton was the only hard part, knowing I deserved you so much more." Zeke shrugged carelessly. "But why dwell on darker times? I have you now, and I know that soon, you will want me as much as I want you."

Before Gabriella could say or do anything, Zeke was pressing his mouth against hers again, and pushing her back. She managed to break free of his grip long enough to regain possession of her mouth. "Please…don't do this…" Gabriella managed to choke out, tears starting to run down her face. Zeke's response was to shove her down onto the bed.

"It doesn't have to be this way." he whispered in her ear, leaning over her.

* * *

Chad's car was speeding away, making crazy turns and nearly killing them all more than once, but no one cared. They were going to the police, finally. They knew Zeke had warned them not to, but it didn't matter anymore. Nothing did but saving their friends, to do what they had abandoned them to.

They soon pulled up in front of the local station. Chad stopped the car and made what had to be the worst parking job in history. They walked inside, and went straight over to the police desk.

"Officer, you have to help us." Sharay said immediately. "Two of our friends have been kidnapped, another two killed. We were kidnapped too, but we got away. Our friends are still trapped, and we need you to help them."

The officer raised his eyebrows. "Really?" he asked skeptically. "This seems like something of a joke."

Sharpay shook her head vigorously. "I swear, I'm telling the truth!" she said emphatically. "My ex was stalking my best friend, and he kidnapped all of us, and he was going to kill us all, but we escaped, and like I said, he has two of our friends with him. One of them's going to end up dying if you don't get to her soon!"

The policeman raised his eyebrows. "All right, miss, what's your name?" he asked. It was written in his face that he didn't believe a word of what she was saying.

"Sharpay Evans, but I-"

A look of recognition spread over the policeman's face. "Evans. Ah." he said. "You're the girl who's brother got murdered, right?"

Sharpay nodded. "Yes, by the same guy who's kidnapped my friends!" she yelled.

"Okay, Miss Evans." said the policeman, standing up and walking over to the group. "I know losing a sibling isn't easy, but coming back here and making up stories isn't going to do anything for anyone. It's just a time waster for all of us."

Sharpay opened her mouth to object, but Chad came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Come on, Shar." he said gently. "Let's go. They're not going to help us."Sharpay looked ready to turn around and start attacking the officer with her overly long nails, but Chad quickly led her back to the car.

"What do we do now?" she asked angrily as she got in the backseat with Jason.

Chad turned to face her and replied, "What we should have done before. We're going back for them, and this time we're not leaving anyone behind."

Chad's car had soon arrived back at Zeke's hideout. Troy was out of the car before it had stopped moving. By the time Chad had stopped and everyone else was out, Troy was going as fast as he could to the window they had broken in through the last time, walking with a limp from the jump he had made from the car.

"You idiot!" Sharpay yelled after him. "What the hell were you trying to do, kill yourself? Get back here!"

Troy ignored her, trying to open the window, which had been locked in their absence. Sharpay hurried over to him and tried to drag him away. He shook her off easily and headed over to the front door.

"Troy, do you want to get killed?" she hissed. "Get back with the others!"

Troy shook his head. "I'm not leaving her. Not anymore, ever again." he replied.

"This is stupid, Troy. What are you going to do, bust in and kill Zeke and have us all living happily ever after?" Sharpay snapped. Troy rolled his eyes. "You don't get it, Sharpay. I have to do this." He broke away from her and walked up to the front door, which was surprisingly unlocked. Sharpay turned back to Chad and Jason, who approached her slowly, watching Troy disappear inside.

"Come on." Sharpay said quietly, walking slowly up to the open door. "We need to stop him before he gets us all killed."

"I'll get him." said Chad resolutely. He turned away from the group, but Sharpay grabbed his hand.

"Be careful." she said softly. "Don't let him get any of you."

"I will. And he'll be sorry if I see him." Chad replied, turning away and disappearing after Troy.

"Jason, come on." Sharpay said briskly, turning to the one remaining member of the group. "We have to get Kelsi out of there."

"What about Zeke?" Jason asked worriedly.

"Chad and Troy will keep him distracted long enough to get Kelsi and get away." said Sharpay. "Come on, Jason. You have to do this. For all of us. For Kelsi."

Jason bowed his head and followed Sharpay into the cabin.

* * *

Inside, it was deathly quiet. To Sharpay, her breath seemed unnaturally loud and conspicuous. She quickly found the door to the basement, where she figured Kelsi would be. She beckoned Jason over and opened the door to the darkness.

Once they were inside, Sharpay found a light switch, which initially blinded them with a shock of bright lights. The door closed behind them. Jason glanced over to Sharpay nervously. Sharpay ignored it.

"It's not like it's going to lock us in here." she said calmly. "Let's find Kelsi and get out." She turned to the window, where she had found her friend before. By the weak light of the small window, she saw only a few frayed ropes and random debris.

"She's not here." she said flatly. "She's not here, Jason." She turned away from the window and back to her friend.

"What do you mean?" Jason asked forcefully. "She has to be. Where is she if she's not here?"

Sharpay shook her head. "I don't know." she replied sadly. Jason turned away from her and walked up the stairs to the door.

"Jason?" Sharpay called after him. "Where are you going?"

"I'm finding her." Jason called back down. "I don't care who's up there, I'm not leaving her." He tugged on the door.

"Sharpay…" he called out. "We have a problem."

"What?"

"We're locked in here."

Sharpay was up the stairs in two seconds. "No. We can't be!" she yelled desperately. "There's got to be some way out!" she stormed back down the stairs, and slammed her fists into the wall, illuminated by the weak light of the small window above her head.

"Look up." said Jason, who had followed her down. "There's your way out."

Sharpay noticed the window and immediately turned on it. She pushed at it, using all of her strength but accomplishing nothing.

"It's locked, Shar." said Jason, coming up behind her.

"Screw locked!" Sharpay said angrily. She pulled off an oversized wedge heeled shoe and smashed it through the window. Then again, and again, until she had created a large enough hole for them to climb out through. Jason helped her out, then hauled himself into the yard as well.

As soon as they had both gotten out of the latest prison, Sharpay stood up and turned back to the house. She was back at the door and inside before Jason could stop her.

* * *

Chad followed his friend down a hall, filled with doors leading off to other horrors. Troy turned to a random door, wrenched it open and walked inside. Chad followed him into the room Gabriella had been trapped in earlier.

A small figure lay on the bed, the fabric pooled around her body stained with her blood. "Holy shit…" Chad muttered. "Kelsi, are you all right?" Kelsi's eyes opened into slits. She seemed unable to respond.

Troy approached her hastily and grabbed her arm. "Kelsi, where's Gabriella?" he asked urgently. Kelsi shook her head. "Please, Kelsi! You have to help us!" Troy yelled. Kelsi closed her eyes. Troy turned away from her and walked back out of the room.

Chad hurried over to the small girl. "Kelsi, are you okay?" he asked.

Kelsi shook her head. "We'll get you out of here soon." Chad said. "Do you know what happened to Gabriella?" He glanced out the door over his shoulder, where Troy was looking in another room. Troy had changed. Never before would he have left Kelsi, or anyone, for that matter, the way he had left her now.

"Zeke…he…took her…they're…here…still…" Kelsi gasped, almost inaudibly. "Get her…away…"

Chad glanced over his shoulder again. Troy had disappeared. "I'll be back." he said, then turned out the door after his friend.

Troy stood in front of the door at the end of the hall, ready to go in, when Chad came up behind him and stopped him. "What the fuck?" he shouted "How could you leave her like that? She could have been dead! She still could die!"

"You don't understand." Troy said flatly. "I have to get to Gabriella."

"No, you don't understand!" Chad yelled, shoving his friend back. "There's nothing to understand! You can't just leave people like that because you want to get to someone more, because you think they matter more. What would Gabriella think if she knew what you were doing?"

"She would understand. This is to save her, to stop him. You don't know how much she matters to me."

"I don't care. She's not the only thing that matters at all. Other things can matter more. Sometimes they have to." Chad said quietly. Troy turned around, very quickly and suddenly, and punched him in the face.

"What the fuck?" Chad yelled, spitting out blood and clutching his nose. Troy didn't say anything, he just turned and opened the door, to see Zeke holding Gabriella down on the bed.

* * *

She was walking down the hall again, the one she would follow many more times at later times. A shadow was cast where a door lay open, where she had seen Jason disappear into. Over the threshold, into another trap, to a sight she had hoped she would never have to see again.

"Kelsi…" she whispered. Kelsi lay immobile, barely breathing. Jason was cradling her still body, tears running silently down his face.

"Please, don't leave me…" she heard him saying.

"Jason…" she started. "We have to get out of here. We can still save her."

He stood up, carefully gathering her in his arms. They left the room, and were on their way to what could have been freedom when they heard the gunshots.

**Okay, now here comes the really long rambling A/N…be warned…**

**First of all, HOLY (insert several swear words) I AM SO (insert another swear) SORRY ABOUT NOT UPDATING…I MEANT TO FINISH THIS TWO WEEKS AGO BUT I GOT SUCH BAD WRITERS BLOCK…YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW…IT TOOK ME LIKE A WEEK TO FINISH THIS. AND IT HASN'T BEEN BETA READ EITHER, BECAUSE I FELT SO BAD ABOUT NOT POSTING, AND IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN TOO LONG TO GET IT TO REMYTHEREAPER, AND BACK, AND LIFE. (I THINK…) BUT I'LL HAVE HER BETA READ IT WHEN SHE GETS BACK, AND I MIGHT END UP REPOSTING IF I NEED TO MAKE ANY CHANGES, SO YEAH. HOPEFULLY THIS CHAPTER'S GOING TO BE OKAY THOUGH.**

**Second of all, HOLY (insert more swears here) THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR GIVING ME LIKE 15 REVIEWS ON LAST CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!! YOUR SUPPORT KEEPS THIS STORY MOVING! **

**AND THIRD OF ALL….THIS IS LIKE, HALF THE CLIMAX, IT'S ONE OF THE END CHAPTERS, THE SECOND ONE IS GOING TO BE UP REALLY REALLY REALLY SOON. HOPEFULLY IN A FEW DAYS, FRIDAY AT LATEST. AND I'M GOING TO SHUT THE HELL UP NOW BECAUSE THIS A/N IS WAAAAAAAY TOO LONG AND RAMBLING. PLEASE REVIEW EVEN IF YOU HATED IT!**


	25. Chapter 24

**Hello, people, thank you so much for the good response! I've just been busy with an evil history paper that's worth like a quarter of my grade, so I REALLY need to do super-duper good on it. (because apparently getting a B- in history and being on second honors for the second term in a row isn't good enough…grrrrr.) But whatever. I just keep writing new chapter bits in study and meaning to post them, and then I never get a chance to because I'm an idiot and I always have better things to do. And then I got the flu and had to go to the hospital because I was apparently really dehydrated, so I have EXCUSES! And I know you're all reading this, just tell me if you like it PLEASE! PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!**

Gabriella stood frozen, watching the scene unfold in front of her. Zeke lay at the other side of the room, blood blossoming in a small puddle around his still form. That didn't matter. It was what she had almost been waiting for. But Troy…Troy wasn't supposed to be lying just like Zeke was, pale and unmoving, with a similar bloodstain on his shirt, spreading slowly. He couldn't be. It wasn't supposed to end like this. No. Never like this.

The scene seemed to twist and bend, shrinking before her eyes until it had disappeared, and the moment where this had all begun was replaying again.

Zeke had shoved her down onto the bed, pressing his mouth against hers. Her tears were falling silently. She heard voices outside, indistinguishable, but did it matter what they were saying? Zeke didn't seem to hear the voices, or if he did, he was seemingly ignoring them.

"Let them find us." he whispered suddenly. "I don't care. They can never stop our love, Gabriella."

"No…" Gabriella whispered, but she was drowned out by other voices.

Troy and Chad suddenly burst in. It took Troy all of two seconds to pull Troy off Gabriella and punch Zeke in the face. Zeke retaliated, and soon the two were wrestling on the floor, with Chad trying to pull Gabriella out the door.

"Troy, no! Just leave him! He has a gun!" Gabriella shouted. She broke away from Chad and tried to pull Troy off her captor.

"You can't stop the fact that we love each other!" Zeke snarled.

"She's mine! She never belonged to you! She's mine!" Troy snapped back at him. His foot nudged the gun that had fallen off the table where it had been lying. He instantly stood up and grabbed it, pointing it at Zeke.

"Troy, put the gun down." said Gabriella, staring at her boyfriend. "Please don't do this."

"Put it down." said Zeke. "You know you can't. You know you won't. You're not strong enough."

A sudden gunshot rang out. Zeke lay on the floor, barely breathing.

But how had the second shot been fired? Gabriella looked around, refusing to believe what had just happened. A second gun lay on the floor between all of them. It couldn't be. It couldn't. It wasn't. Troy could not be on the floor, lying just like Zeke was, pale, unmoving, bleeding. Dying.

She hurried to Troy's side, dimly aware of the voices of her friends and foes alike. It didn't matter who they were.

"Gabriella…" he whispered. His eyes closed and he moved no more.

**Mwahahahahahahaahaha…I had to. There will be one or two more chapters after this, but it's getting near the end. You have to review if you ever want to see the end. I'll have Troy in limbo forever if you don't review. Same with Kelsi. And anyone else I feel like putting in limbo until your reviews set them free. PLEASE REVIEW! oh yes, and also, thank you so much for the 200 reviews! thank you especially Daydreamer299, who was my 200th reviewer! i would have sent you a PM thanking you about 10 more times and then just kinda died, but it was an anonymous review. :( so I'll just thank you here and hope you read this. Again, please keep reviewing! And also, this story was beta read by the amazing wonderful awesome lovely RemyTheReaper, who is my beta reader. so yeah.  
**


	26. Chapter 25

**HOLY S**T I AM SOOOOOOO SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING IN SO LONG!!!!!!!!!! I would have like a week ago only my lovely beta reader kept not reading this or not telling me what she thought. But she FINALLLY DID after like a week of me yelling at her. So if you're going to send an angry mob after me for this, send a smaller one after her. And BTW, Grassy Leaves, I DO remember who you are. I would have PMed you but when I attempted to was when the whole login thing was down. And I just kept putting it off and it just came to mind and I figured I would just let you know this way. Because I'm weird like that. But yes, of course I remember you! How could I forget? Good times…camp last year… :P we were all insane then…some of us still are…okay I'll shut up before the mob that's going to kill me has time to grow. **

I can feel my hand clenching around the gun at my side. No one sees, whoever else is there. They're all staring at him, at Troy, like they didn't think he'd do it. But I knew. And he knew. I had to know.

I hold up the gun and the rest of the world melts away. I can't hear the shouts begging me to stop, put down the gun. But I know they're there, I just can't hear them. I can't register anything but the perfect face in front of me, the unnaturally blue eyes boring into mine. I can't hear his question, but I can see it hanging all around us both, written in his eyes and on his flawless face. He's seeing what we were supposed to be. What he thought we were. No more.

He's hoping I won't do it. The others are, too, but they don't know what both Troy and I know. We've both changed. We've all changed. They still expect me to drop the gun, but Troy and I both know that I'm going to pull that trigger. Troy's slipping, but he knows that much, even now.

I pull the trigger. I still can't understand how something so simple could do something so drastic as ending someone's life, even if I've seen it endless times.

Everything's stopped, like it's giving me time to start regretting this all, and wish I could take it all back. It's what everyone expects me to think, because that's how it's supposed to work out. Then the police show up and I'm thrown in jail while begging for them to forgive me.

Things never work out like they're supposed to, though.

Because I'll never feel a single bit of remorse. I don't think I ever will. I'm never going to feel remorse. I'll feel curiosity. Interest. Surprise. But I wouldn't change a thing about it. Ever.

The sound of the gun firing makes time start again. I can hear, and the others have appeared again. I can hear him whispering my name…

"Gabriella…"

What's supposed to happen never does. I learned that the hard way.

**Wow. Evil bitchy Gabriella. I had to, though. It makes sense. Just read and review and wait till the next chapter. And PLEASE DON'T KILL ME. And just because Troy got shot doesn't mean he's dead. Yet. Taylor lived for a while after being shot. So did Kelsi. So stop hating me for 'killing Troy.' You don't know that I did yet. You are, however, perfectly allowed for what you just read. I completely allow it. And this will all make something along the lines of sense in the next chapter…it's all going to wrap up in the next two. :P Please review! **


	27. Chapter 26

**OH MY GOD I"M STILL ALIVE AND I'M SOOOOOOOO SORRY ABOUT ABANDONING THIS STORY. I won't bother giving you excuses...they involve large amounts of procrastination, getting hit by a car, and my laptop dying multiple times. Long stories. You don't want to know. I'll shut up and let you read this and pray that I still get reviews on this. **

Gabriella allowed herself to be led into the hospital, barely realizing where she was going. She was beyond caring. _Why?_ was the only thing she could think of. The single word reverberated around in her head, filling every part of her thoughts, until she couldn't stand it anymore.

"No!" she suddenly said out loud. Her friends stopped and looked at her, as did a passing nurse. She let out a long breath. She didn't care about the attention she had drawn to herself. She could only think of how the chorus of questions had stopped.

"Gabriella, are you okay?" Sharpay asked worriedly, turning to face her friend. "What's wrong?"

Gabriella shook her head. "It's just…so awful." she said quietly.

Sharpay looked at her sympathetically. "I know." she replied, hugging her friend. "I'm sorry you had to go through this, Gabriella."

Gabriella shook her head. "It's not your fault, Sharpay. Come on. Let's go see if we can get in to see Troy or Kelsi."

_Putting on the mask was easy. Holding it up is the hard part,_ Gabriella thought. _But how long can I do this for?_

The group presently made their way to the waiting room, sitting down and staring ahead blankly, each lost in their own thoughts. Gabriella felt someone's eyes on her and glanced around uneasily. _It can't be Zeke. _she told herself over and over, trying to convince herself.

Gabriella cast a glance around at her friends. Jason was staring fixedly at the doors leading to the ER. Sharpay had her gaze fixed blankly on the television in the corner. Gabriella looked to where Chad was sitting, on her other side, and met his eyes.

He didn't say anything, but didn't have to. His expression said it all: pain, sadness, and knowing something he wished he could forget. If only he could. If only they all could.

A nurse approaching the small group pulled them all out of the worlds of thoughts and horrors they had let themselves fall into. "Who are you waiting to see?" she asked.

"Troy Bolton and Kelsi Neilsen." Chad answered for all of them. "Are they all right?"

"Troy is still in the ICU. You can see Kelsi." The nurse replied. "I'll show you to her room."

The nurse led them to a small, whitewashed hospital room, where Kelsi lay alone, hooked up to a several machines and IVs. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow.

"She's sleeping right now." the nurse said. "I don't know when she'll wake up. It might not be for a while." She turned and left the group to be with Kelsi.

Jason was the first to break away from the tight cluster around the door and approach Kelsi's bed. He sat down and took her hand.

"Kelsi…" he whispered. "Kelsi, please, wake up."

The rest of the group slowly moved to gather behind him, all staring at their friend. Kelsi suddenly turned her head. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Jason…guys…" she muttered. "What happened? Where are we?"

"We're in the hospital." said Sharpay in a low, soothing voice, sitting down next to Jason. "It's going to be okay, Kelsi."

"What about Zeke?" Kelsi said worriedly.

"He's dead." Sharpay's voice tightened.

"Oh…Sharpay, I'm sorry…" Kelsi was clearly at a loss for what to say.

"It doesn't matter. The bastard deserved it." Sharpay said flatly.

"Kelsi, are you feeling all right?" Jason asked anxiously.

Kelsi gave a small shrug and grimaced. "My arm hurts." she said, looking down at her bandaged limb. "I think I'm okay, though." She gave a slight smile and looked back to Chad and Gabriella.

As soon as Kelsi's eyes landed on her, Gabriella turned away. she had to get away. Before she knew what she was doing, she turned and started running, out of the room, down the hall, stopping only when she was outside and nearly fell into the memorial fountain in front of the building. She sat down on the rim and stared down into the water, her tears falling and disappearing in the rippling water.

She managed to stop crying at the sound of footsteps behind her. "Gabriella." said Chad.

He sounded so different. Everything was different now.

She turned around, waiting for him to mention what had happened, what she had done, waiting to hear how he was going to tell everyone.

"Are you all right?"

It wasn't what she had been expecting at all, and caught her off guard.

"Yeah." she replied after a minute. "I just can't help but feel like it's all my fault."

Chad looked out over the parking lot, where the sun was staring to rise. "It's not." he said flatly. "We couldn't leave you. It's his fault for putting us all through this."

Gabriella shrugged. "It's just...it's hard." she said. "I don't want to accept it."

"None of us do, Gabriella, but we're going to have to live with what happened. We can't change it." He shook his head. "Do you want to go back inside?"

"Yeah, in a minute." she said. "I just want to be alone for a bit."

Chad nodded and retreated back into the building, leaving her. As soon as he had gone, Gabriella stood up and walked over to the car the group had driven there, spinning the keys she had taken from Chad's pocket around her finger listlessly. She drove home and climbed in through an open window, going straight to her room and curling up under the covers, not bothering to take off her clothes or turn on any of the lights in her house. She fell asleep almost instantly.

Gabriella woke up hours later, very suddenly, with none of the drowsiness she usually felt when waking up. She groped around on her bedside table for the lamp and brushed her fingers against something cold and metal. She wrapped her fingers around it and, squinting in the dim light, could just make out the shape of a gun.

**So it's almost done...almost...i promise I'll have the end posted really soon. Promise. But you have to review**.


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